


Collections of The Walking Dead (and some other games) one-shots.

by 1_dont_care



Category: The Last of Us, The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:41:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 18
Words: 84,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21773137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1_dont_care/pseuds/1_dont_care
Summary: Basically, if I'd post every one-shot separately I would have too much of them.Oh, and I'm sorry for any mistakes in high school AU because from what I know they might be a little different from the ones in my country.
Relationships: Clementine (Walking Dead)/Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Clementine (Walking Dead)/Dina (The Last of Us), Clementine (Walking Dead)/Ellie (The Last of Us), Clementine/Sophie (Walking Dead: Done Running), Clementine/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running), Minerva/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 73





	1. Just give me a chance. Sophie/Clem

Sophie sat with her friends talking about anything they could think of, laughs and jokes could be hearable at their table, Sophie from all people there wasn't really focused on talking she was looking at the new girl in school, she talked to her once when she ran into her while rushing to her next class, they didn't talk long, but Sophie knew her name at least, Clementine, Sophie immediately noticed that girl was...Pretty, it was the only thing she could focus on when Clem helped her get up from the floor, and she can remember the blush on her face when she accidentally started staring at her. "Sophie, for fuck's sake just try asking her out." Sophie's sister broke her out from another time she was staring at her. "I can't. I already made fool of myself in front of her." Sophie rejects this thought, even if she could find the courage to ask her out what odds were that she liked girls too? "Oh, because you stared at her? Minnie didn't mind before we were dating." Violet informs and Minnie smiles, no one minded their little talk about Sophie's fear to ask Clem out... Apart from Louis, he was eavesdropping the whole conversation. Clem is sitting alone and Louis will make use of that.

"Well, she didn't because she's a little different from other girls in this school." Sophie retorts and Minnie pretends to be hurt by her comment and Violet rolls her eyes. "Be right back." Louis states and stands up, the tone and the way he looked at Clementine made Sophie want to stop him, but before she could Louis was out of reach. "I will kill him," Sophie mutters under her breath, but Violet heard her since she's sitting right next to her. "Please don't, he's my only friend that I can trust." Violet jokes and Sophie flips her off, she told the same to Minnie when she promised to kill Sophie. 

Sophie is watching Louis talking to Clem and Clem nods, and that doesn't look like she refused whatever he offered to her. Nervousness takes over Sophie when Clem stands up from her table and both of them start walking to the table Sophie and rest are sitting at, Louis gestures to Minnie and Violet to move and they listen to him. "No, please, don't," Sophie begs for them to stop and Violet and Minnie just shake their heads. "Meet my new friend, her name's Clementine and I invited her to our group, are you all okay with it?" Louis asks and no one tells anything so he tells her to sit next to Sophie and Clem does just that, and Sophie is even more nervous. "Hi." Clem greets Sophie with a sweet smile and Sophie is already blushing. 'Well, I'm fucked.' Sophie thinks and greets her too, but she stutters a little. "Wait... I know you from somewhere." Clem says and Sophie just prays that she won't remind herself what happened in the corridor. "Sophie right? You ran into me when you were running to your next class." Clem asks and Sophie nods a little. "I'm sorry." Sophie apologizes and Clem just waves it off. "Clem, meet my friends." Louis interrupts and starts introducing his friends: Violet, Minnie, Aasim, Ruby, Mitch, Marlon, and Brody.

Everyone started talking and Sophie took a quick look on Clem's face now and then, quick enough for Clem not to notice it, but Minnie and Louis? They're a completely different case.

When they all walked out from school Minnie, Sophie and Louis were walking together, Violet wanted to go with them too, but Minnie told her she'll be managing to make Sophie ask Clem out, so she quickly agreed and went with Brody. Clementine was already invited to the group chat of 'Ericson's gang' as Louis calls their group. "So, what do you think about asking her out now? She wasn't mad at you at all for this whole staring thing, she probably doesn't even know you did." Louis asks and Sophie sighs in deeply. "What I think? You made my crush on her even worse! What am I supposed to do? Asking her out now is pretty stupid." Sophie admits that she has a crush on Clem by accident. "Well, at least you admitted it, be nice to her and everything will work out, actually judging by the way she took quick glances at you from time to time it might not be that hard," Minnie says and Sophie breathes in with a hint of hope in her voice. "Really?!" Sophie asks and she almost jumps from excitement when Minnie nods and Louis confirms it too.

The week went by quickly, Clem made friends with everyone in a group easily and the longer she was in their group made Sophie's crush even worse, she can't even count how many times she already stared at her, she thought it was creepy, but it didn't stop her. "Fuck it, I'm telling her today," Sophie exclaims when she talks with her sister and she just smiles proudly, she tried convincing Sophie for an entire week. "I approve, she looks at you almost the same way you look at her, but try not to fuck it up? Please?" Minnie teases and Sophie rolls her eyes, she already was invited by Clem to her house, apparently, her foster father was out of their house and she didn't felt like being alone and she invited Sophie and Sophie only. "I'll try to, but I won't promise anything." Sophie retorts and stands up, she should be already making her way to Clem's place.

Sophie took a jacket with her, winter was harsh and there was much snow, she can't even remember how many times Louis threw a snowball at anyone in the group, once it evolved into a full-on war on snowballs, the way Clem giggled then made Sophie's heart flutter. Sophie was just thinking about Clementine and before she could realize she was at Clem's door, Sophie took a couple of deep breaths and knocked on them, Sophie also notice a car, Ford Mustang GT 2018, she never saw Clem ride with it to school so it's probably her father's. Not long after Clem opened the door and let Sophie inside, she's wearing some blouse and sweatpants on her, maybe it isn't much, but in Sophie's eyes Clem looks perfect in any clothes she's wearing.

"So, you invited me to your house, and what we'll do?" Sophie asks, she waits for the perfect moment to admit her feelings, but she doesn't think she'll actually be able to. "Well, I didn't give it much thought, but when you're around I won't be bored," Clem responds and Sophie slowly nods. Sophie took off her jacket and boots and followed Clem to her room, her room wasn't big and ironically it was painted in orange color, there was a TV, a queen-sized bed, a huge wardrobe, and a desk there was a couple of photos of her friends from the previous school too, she talked about them once. "Okay, I have two ideas, first, we listen to music and talk, or we'll watch something on Netflix. Which one?" Clem asks with a smile and Sophie shrugs. "Netflix, I have enough music with Minnie and Violet." Sophie decides after a while and Clem nods.

Sophie is anxious, Clem is turning some movie on Netflix and Sophie doesn't know if there'll be a good moment to admit what she's feeling towards brunette, so she decides to tell it before they'll start watching. "Clem?" Sophie calls her out and Clem looks at her. "Yeah?" Clem asks and Sophie takes a deep breath, she just hopes that Minnie was right about Clem feeling the same what Sophie feels. "So, I don't want this to ruin our friendship, but I need to tell you that... I like you, like more than a friend, and I just hope that you'll give me a chance." Sophie admits quickly and feels like she fucked up everything when Clem doesn't react in any way. Sophie turns her head away from the brunette trying to ignore the awkward silence. "Do you mean that?" Clem asks sternly and Sophie nods her head shyly. Sophie hears quiet footsteps closer to her by every second. "Look at me." Clem commands and Sophie slowly looks at her, she's very close, Sophie is getting ready for Clem to shout at her, to tell her to get the hell out from her house, but that doesn't happen.

Sophie fells a pair of lips on hers, she's surprised by the action, but she melts into the kiss, a fireworks go off in her head, she can see stars through her closed eyes, she couldn't believe that Clementine was actually kissing her, and from an actual feeling and not some dare. When Clem pulls back Sophie's eyes are closed for a second more then she opens them. "Does it mean that you'll give me a chance?" Sophie asks dumbly and Clem nods, Sophie feels like her heart could win a marathon. "Sophie?" Clem asks when Sophie doesn't do anything for a second or two and before Clem could react Sophie connected their lips again in a sweet and loving kiss.

They started to watch some movie that Clem chose and next, they shared a couple of quicks kisses or they flirted whenever they had an occasion, and on the next Clem fall asleep it's Friday and they don't need to go to school tomorrow what gives Sophie a little hope to spend more time with Clementine. Clem fell asleep in Sophie's embrace and Sophie could feel her phone vibrate in her pocket, she makes sure that she won't wake Clem up and takes it out and reads a text from Minnie

 **Minnie** : whats up? U didnt come back.  
**Sophie** : long story short i did it. i admitted my feeling i kissed clem and right now clem is asleep in my arms.  
**Minnie** : congrats. good night  
**Sophie** : good night

Sophie smiles as she texts back and throws her phone on the side of the couch and closes her eyes, she can feel the warmth radiating from Clem and she already loves that feeling, she just hopes their relationship will work.


	2. Clementine/Violet

"Remind me to never listen to Louis again," Violet says as she's walking next to her girlfriend. "Why? You look cute with it." Clem responds and Violet is blushing, they were playing truth or dare and Louis dared her to dye part of her hair purple. "My eyes could be burned out and you'd still think I look cute," Violet says and Clem shrugs. "I guess, I don't know how, but you always look cute. Besides, you chose a dare." Clem reminds her and Violet rolls her eyes. "If I'd know that he'll dare me to do it I would choose truth," Violet says and Clem shakes her head. "You wouldn't, we're together for about a week now, and Louis always looks for a way to embarrass us," Clem says the truth, even if Louis does try, no one really pays much mind to it. "Before you even were friends with us, he already had a ship name for us," Violet admits and Clem is amused. "Really?" Clem asks and Violet nods. "Yeah, Violentine," Violet says and Clem chuckles. 

They were next to the trailer park that Violet lived in, Clem hopes that Violet will be able to get our from there, and looking at how well she manages in school, maybe she'll be able to get good enough job to actually get out from there. "Clem?" Violet speaks up and Clem turns her head to Violet. "Yeah?" "Can I sleep at your place tonight? My dad will be drunk again, and if he sees me with that..." Violet starts and can't end, she can't let Clem know that he beats her. "He'll yell, and will call me a disappointment again, and will threaten to send me to that boarding school again." Violet lies, he'll beat her again, it's rare for her to even walk into her house... Or trailer more likely. "Sure. But we'll have to be quiet, AJ is probably sleeping by now." Clem warns and Violet nods and smiles internally, she's really lucky that she has Clem. 

Clem stops Violet right before they enter the house. "What is it?" Violet asks when she sees the troubled expression on Clem's face. "Lee doesn't really know that you're my girlfriend... Or that I like girls." Clem says and Violet knows that feeling, she never admitted it either, because of her fear that her father might really send her to that boarding school, but from what she heard Lee isn't that kind of man, he'll most probably understand. "Okay, we'll pretend that we're just friends in front of him," Violet says and Clem shakes her head. "But I want him to know, but I don't know how to say it," Clem admits and Violet pecks her on the lips to make her relax, she knows that when Clem is stressed she might start saying something without really thinking, and it actually helped Violet because that's how she found out that Clem likes her in the same way she likes Clem. "We'll tell him in the morning." Violet offers and Clem nods a little. "Okay." Clem agrees. 

When they walk inside, Violet is immediately hit by a smell of some bacon and eggs, she would probably kill for some by now, she doesn't eat much, her parents can't afford much food, they would if her dad stopped drinking, or if Violet's mother would kick his ass out. Clem grabs Violet's hand and practically drags her inside. Lee was sitting on the couch and he watched some movie, and he noticed Clem and Violet. "Who's your friend, Clem?" Lee asks and Clem blushes a little, but dim lighting covers it. "This is Violet," Clem says quickly and Violet nods. "Can she stay for the night?" Clem asks and Lee eyes Violet and nods. "Sure, but please be quiet, AJ is sleeping and if he'll wake up... Let's say I may not survive this night." Lee jokes and Violet chuckles. "Of course, we promise to be quiet," Clem says and leads Violet into her room. 

"I'm not gonna lie, you couldn't be more obvious, I'm pretty sure he already suspects something." Violet says and sees that Clem is starting to panic. "Calm down, he maybe doesn't suspect anything, and besides, we're telling him tomorrow right?" Violet calms her down and Clem nods. "Okay, so what we're doing now?" Clem asks and Violet starts thinking and yawns in the meantime, she just now realized how tired she is. "How about going to sleep?" Violet suggests and Clem nods. "Lay down, I'll go and change and join you," Clem says and takes some shorts and tank top from her wardrobe and walks inside her bathroom and changes her clothes. Clem goes back to her room and Violet is already asleep under her covers and Clem joins her, she didn't even realize when blonde's hands were wrapped around her waist and blush took over her face, but when she melt into the touch she just closed her eyes with a smile and fall asleep pretty quickly, just hoping they will never have to get up.


	3. Clementine/Ellie

Clem is laying on the couch, watching TV, waiting for her girlfriend, she can't wait to see her, Ellie was out of town for a whole week, well almost a week and one day by now, she was visiting Tommy, Maria, and Shane, Maria's and Tommy's son, Clem asked if she can go too, but sadly she couldn't. It's not that Ellie didn't want her to, but Joel told Ellie that he doesn't even know her, well it's true, Clem wanted to meet Ellie's father, but Ellie was too scared to introduce her to him. Lee already knows Ellie and he totally adores her. Ellie says that it's too 'early', Clem thinks otherwise, well they aren't together for a long, just a month, but they're already living together, and Clem just wants to be around Ellie as much as she possibly can. She just can't help it. 

Clem was just about to give up, she wanted to just write Ellie a text just to wake her up when she'll be back and go to sleep, but then she heard keys getting put into the lock and then the door is being open. 

She didn't wait, Clem got up from the couch and sprinted to the doors, but she didn't find the person she loved. In the door stood an old man, she didn't recognize, Clem don't know what she should do, he had a suitcase in his arm, Ellie's suitcase. "Who the hell are you?" Clem asks and the man puts down the suitcase and smiles and turns back. "This is the girl?" He asks and now Ellie appears from behind him and nods. "Yep," Ellie responds and pulls confused Clem into an embrace and puts her head right next to her ear. "Go upstairs, and put some pants on. I'll explain there." Ellie whispers and feels how Clem nods. 

Clem waits in hers and Ellie's room, she heard some talking and then someone going up the stairs. Ellie opened the door to their bedroom and saw Clem sitting on the bed with crossed arms, but at least she put sweatpants on. "So?" Clem asks, waiting for an explanation and Ellie sighs and sits next to and places a kiss on Clem's cheek with a little hope that she'll calm down and she did a little, then Ellie spotted that Clem's cheeks are red, but she isn't really sure if it's because she's angry or if she's blushing because of the kiss. "Well, I remembered how much you told me you want to meet my father, so I invited him. Plus when I spent more time on my phone than with my family, Joel really wanted to meet you, and he wouldn't take no for an answer." Ellie explains and Clem shrugs. "You could've at least texted me, that he'll be here. I mean, I invited him with a great view of me in your t-shirt and, that are mine, panties." Clem explains and Ellie apologizes. 

When Ellie sits quietly for a while, Clem turns to her with a wide smile. "I missed you," Clem says and Ellie smiles, Clem couldn't wait anymore and just pulled Ellie into a kiss, long and passionate one, but she pulls away before Ellie could take things too far, and Ellie whines when she does that. "Okay, let's go to him before he'll think we're doing something else than talking." Clem chuckles and Ellie rolls her eyes and tries to kiss Clem again, but she stops her. "Let's say it's a punishment for not texting me," Clem says and Ellie crosses her arms. "Okay." 

The talk went quickly, Joel seemed nice and caring for Ellie when Ellie offered that she'll bring something to drink and Joel specifically asked for a coffee, he wanted more time to talk with Clem. "So, who's this Gabe guy?" Joel asks, Clem is surprised he knows about him, Ellie knows about Gabe, but didn't think she'd tell Joel about him. Actually, Ellie is a savior to Clem, Gabe hit Clem, more than once, and she was too afraid to admit it, she thought that people will laugh because she could take on one of toughest idiots back in school, but she couldn't take on Gabe, it's not like she wouldn't handle it, it was about that he abused her before hitting her, psychological abuse, if not Ellie she would kill herself long time ago. 

"Ellie told you about him?" Clem asks and Joel shakes his head. "When we were unpackin' her stuff, he and two of his friends started to tell that I paid you to be together with Ellie when I told him I don't even know you, he tried to convince Ellie that it's true, well, Ellie isn't stupid and knew he wants to get back with you. When I told him to fuck off, he didn't take it well and attacked me, he did hit me, but... Let's say he can't even throw a punch." Joel says with a chuckle and Clem listed with curiosity, it isn't the first time he tried convincing Clem or Ellie that it is wrong and that 'girls can't be with girls', but he never attacked her, or Ellie. "I was with him. If not Ellie, I'd still be. If you really want to know what happened ask her, I can't talk about it." Clem says with pain in her voice, she's still hurt after this asshole, but she's healing. 

Ellie came back and when she did Joel and Clem talked about their lives, what they do and all of that, Clem has to admit, Joel is an interesting person, to say the least. "I heard you had an... Encounter with our beanie boy." Clem says, it was a nickname Ellie came up with, and Clem loved it, even if she hated the person that it belonged to. "Yeah... Clem, he took it too far now, I'll talk to David tomorrow, after dinner." Ellie says, she wanted to talk to Gabe's father a lot of times by now, but Clem always stopped her, but she can't now, not after he attacked the father of person she loves, and probably the person she loves too, but what catches her mind is how she mentioned dinner. 

"We have something planned I forgot about?" Clem asks with worry in her voice, but Ellie just smiles, shakes her head and sits next to Clem. "No, but Joel told me that if he likes you, that then we're invited to dinner at his house. Unless you don't?" Ellie turns to her adoptive father and he nods. "You're invited," Joel says and finishes his coffee and Clem just smiles with pride, Ellie does the same. "Okay, kids, I have to go, be at our place 'round 2 pm," Joel says, Clem says goodbye and Ellie walks him to the door, she caught that Joel asked Ellie to talk to him, she's curious if it's about Gabe. 

Ellie came back about 5 minutes later with a saddened look on her face, now Clem is sure that they talked about Gabe. "Before you ask, and please don't be mad, I talked with Joel about beanie boy, he just... I know that he doesn't take kindly to the kind of things he has done to you, I'm sorry." Ellie explains with a sad, quiet voice and Clem shakes her head. "I told him that if he wants to know what happened between me and him that he has to ask you," Clem says and Ellie nods and clunches her fists. "I regret I didn't kill that asshole," Ellie exclaims and Clem shakes her head. "If you did, you'd be taken to prison, you know that we didn't had any evidence about what he had done, and how the case in court ended, I know that if you would end in prison... I just can't. If you'll ever disappear in my life, it'll end for me." Clem says, tears flowing down her face, and Ellie sat next to her and offered her comfort, she regrets she even mentioned it. 

"I'm sorry." Ellie apologizes and Clem just shakes her head, still crying in Ellie's neck. "You don't have to, I should be the one apologizing. I'm just a burden." Clem really feels that way, she never admitted it, but she does. Since Gabe Ellie took care of her, she thinks that Ellie said that she loves her just to make her feel better. When Ellie heard her she grabbed Clem by the shoulders and made her look in her eyes. "Clem, listen to me. You aren't a burden, you never were, I was an idiot, fuck it, our whole gang was, everyone suspected that something was wrong, but no one did anything, I did because I caught him, I felt something for you, for a long time and I was just too afraid to admit it and when I saw him, heard him, something snapped inside me. I love you, and nothing will change that. Never." Ellie says what had been weighing her down for a long time when she was done she felt tears in her eyes too, she just hugged Clem back and let her words sink in. 

"I love you too, Ellie." Clem admits after the longest five minutes of Ellie's life. "Never forget that," Ellie begs and Clem nods. 

Ellie hold Clem until brunette stopped crying and when she did, she literally fell asleep in Ellie's arms, and redhead knows that waking her up isn't the greatest idea, so she picks her up bridal style to their bed and put her under the covers, and Ellie just took her boots off and laid down too, she was too tired after a ride to even think about doing anything else, what she felt was Clem's hands already wrapped around her, it's normal for her to cuddle up to Ellie in her sleep, Ellie already got used to that and by all means, she doesn't mind.


	4. Clementine/Brody

"Brody for fuck's sake, tell her that you like her." Violet sighs when she sees her friend staring at a certain brunette. Again. Brody shakes her head. "Hell no," She refuses and Violet sighs again. "Brody, she likes your anxious, panicking, sorry ass, you're the one overthinking it," Violet tells her and Brody sighs in disagreement. "What did she do when Marlon aimed that gun at you? She didn't try to calm him down, she stepped in front of you, grabbed Marlon's gun, that was still in his hand and placed it on her forehead. I don't think she'd do that for someone that doesn't mean something more than just friends." Violet reassures, and Brody's mind is replaying what happened a few days ago. 

_Brody was running as fast as she possibly could, but she still heard footsteps behind her and Brody was sure it's not Clementine's, but Marlon's. "Brody stop!" Marlon screams and before Brody could react Marlon was pinning her against the ground, Brody tried to fight back, she screamed and tried to push Marlon off herself._

_Brody was still fighting, but Marlon was stronger, everyone went out to the courtyard, to check what the hell is happening, all of them head Brody's screams for help and Marlon knew he won't be able to convince her, he stands up from Brody, not caring about what anybody else says_

_Things escalated quickly from there, Brody didn't even know when Marlon started aiming from a revolver at her head, or where he got it. Everybody tried to talk Marlon out of shooting Brody, but he started rambling about twins, and that if they'll give Clem away they'll leave them in peace, only Brody knew about what is he talking about, but she was too scared of a gun in Marlon's hand to tell anything._

_Clementine walked out from the cellar, seeing what is happening at the courtyard, seeing Marlon aiming at Brody, something snapped in her and she just stood in front of Brody grabbed the barrel and pointed it at her forehead. "If you want to kill her, you will need to kill me, but I wonder what who will you give to your raider friends when they come knocking," Clem says, and turns her head to Brody. "Tell them about the twins, about everything, he won't do anything to you," Clem reassures and Brody nods weakly and proceeds to tell what happened to the twins, what Marlon wanted to do to Clem, but she also admits that she had her part in this. Everyone was shocked by this, but Violet seemed broken, more than when she found out that twins won't come back to school._

"I still can't believe you forgave me," Brody mutters in amusement and Violet shrugs. "It hurt me, but Marlon threatened you, and I didn't forgive you fully," Violet responds and Brody nods. "And if Clem actually being ready to take a bullet for you isn't enough to convince you, think about it that way, since that night she was always helping you get through your panic attacks, or when you couldn't sleep she was the one to help you fall asleep, I can bet my one eyeball that she feels something towards you." Violet tries to convince Brody and it seems to be working, Brody runs her hands through her hair and takes a deep breath. "If she'll reject me, I'll be the one cutting your eyeball out." Brody jokes and Violet seems surprised that Brody will actually try to admit her feelings towards Clem. 

"When?" Violet asks and Brody takes a deep breath and thinks about that question for a while, and not long after she has an answer. "Clem doesn't have a night shift today right?" Brody asks and Violet shakes her head making Brody smile a little. "In the evening, right after dinner." Brody answers and Violet nods, she didn't plan any card games, but she still has to ask Louis if he was planning anything, and if he did, she will tell him that they will play tomorrow. "Well, I wish you luck, but I have to go and check on everyone," Violet says and gets up from the stairs leaving the auburn-haired girl alone, it wasn't long for her to keep her eyes on brunette that was talking with Louis, laughing at one of his jokes, that's when it hits her, what if she doesn't like girls the same way Brody or Violet does? Brody is sure that she'll make a fool of herself, but she trusts Violet, and she trusts her that Clementine actually likes her. 

Time has passed very slowly for Brody, she couldn't wait to say to brunette what she feels, but she also started being anxious and nervous, Violet did notice this and tried to help her friend, but whatever she said didn't work, or made it even worse and when Clem tried to help she immediately refused saying that she's fine, she would accept her help if not the fact that Clem is the one causing her to be in that state. 

Everyone is already eating dinner, and Brody is too nervous to even try eating, she excused herself and walked to her room trying to calm herself down. It did not work, and sudden knocking on her door didn't help either. 

"Come in." Brody says with a raised voice, she thought it'll be Violet checking up on her, but how wrong she was. From behind the door, enters a brunette with a cap with 'D' on it, and when Brody spots Clem she feels like she's about to puke. 

"Brody, you're feeling alright?" Clem asks with a worried voice and Brody nods weakly, Clem closes the door behind her, sits next to Brody and crosses her arms. "I can see through your lies, Brody," Clem says and Brody takes a deep breath. "I don't okay?" Brody exclaims with an annoyed voice and Clem puts an arm on her shoulder making her tense up under her touch. "Why I have a feeling that it's my fault? Normally you would talk to me, let me help you get through your panic attacks, but you didn't even said a single word to me." Clementine confronts her and Brody takes another deep breath. "I mean... It's kind of your fault?" Brody says and Clem nods a little with a hurt expression on her face. "Oh, don't understand me wrong, it's something else, you didn't do anything wrong." Brody quickly explains and Clem is now confused. "Then what is it?" Clem asks and Brody starts thinking about how she will explain the whole thing. 

"Clem, I'll tell you, but you need to promise me that it won't ruin our friendship." Brody says and Clem nods. "After me being ready to take a bullet to the forehead for you? I don't think anything can ruin it." Clem reassures and Brody runs her hands through her hair, trying to calm herself down when it doesn't work she gives up and decides to tell her. "Since you protected me from Marlon I started to feel weird around you, not sure why, but the thing is that it's not bad kind of weird... I'm overthinking it again. Okay, Clem, I'll tell it simply. I like you, as more than a friend." Brody explains, her heart is beating so fast, she was never so scared of anything, and when no response comes from brunette Brody nods, with saddened expression, she's on edge of tears, but she won't cry in front of Clementine. 

"I understand..." Brody mutters and wants to walk away, hide from everyone and cry as long as she possibly can without getting noticed, then pretending it never happened, but before she was out of reach brunette held her hand and pulled Brody back on the bed, Brody was confused, not sure what Clem is doing, their eyes made contact for a short while before brunette leaned forward placing a kiss on Brody's lips. Brody's heart is beating even faster than ever before, she's not sure what is happening until it's over. 

Brody's face was red when Clem pulled away and opened her eyes, brunette smiled when she saw the mixed expression on Brody's face. "Explain to me what the hell just happened?" Brody asks amused, still not quite believing that Clem kissed her. "It was my way of telling you that I have feelings for you too," Clem explains with a smirk and Brody shakes her head, she doesn't disagree with what Clem says, she just can't believe it. "Really?" Brody asks and Clem nods with a smile. 

"How long?" Brody asks suddenly and Clem shakes her head in confusion wanting Brody to tell her exactly what she's asking about. "How long you felt the same thing towards me?" Brody clarifies and Clem wonders about that question for a while. "Not long after I protected you from Marlon, next day I think, but it really got to me about a day ago." Clem answers and Brody nods, she doesn't really know what she should do next, but she's sure she'll figure it out. With Clementine.


	5. Clementine/Ellie part 2

When Ellie woke up, the first thing she noticed is lack of warmth of another person next to her, she was terrified when she didn't felt arms wrapped around her waist since Clem moved in with her, Ellie always woke up with Clem being as close as she possibly could to her, Ellie even checks if Clem didn't fall off the bed in sleep, but she's nowhere to be seen. "Clem?" Ellie calls out, her voice is still sleepy, but the worry is much more hearable in it. 

Ellie stands up from the bed, knocks on the bathroom door, hoping she'll get any response but she doesn't get any, just to be safe she opens the door and no one is there, she just hopes Clementine didn't do anything stupid because of her meltdown yesterday, well today theoretically, but Ellie doesn't pay much mind to if it was yesterday or today. 

Ellie runs down the stairs, almost falling from them, her heart racing, she never was afraid of anything than losing Clem, not after the shit she went through with Clem. 

Ellie notices that lights inside the kitchen are turned on and that it's still dark outside, Ellie walks in the kitchen and sees Clementine eating a sandwich. "What the hell you're doing here?" Ellie asks with relief, she doesn't wait and throws her hands around the shorter girl. "Uh, I was hungry, I woke up and used that one time you weren't laying on me to make myself a sandwich, I left, five minutes ago?" Clem responds and feels Ellie nodding against her shoulder. "I was worried," Ellie admits and scratches back of her neck and Clem nods. "I could tell." 

"Well, I'd tell you to wake me up next time, but we both know it won't work." Ellie jokes with a smirk and Clem giggles, this makes Ellie's heart swell, whenever she's able to make Clem, giggle, laugh, or even smile, she feels like she had fulfilled her duty, she could just listen to Clementine's voice and not get bored, and she's one of those people that can get bored pretty easily. "Finish that sandwich, when Joel said he expects us at 2 am, he means noon, before you moved in, he wanted to introduce me to his girlfriend, he told me to get there at 6 am, I got there exactly at six, and he told me I'm late, and believe me, it's better if we'll be earlier than later," Ellie warns and Clem chuckles a little and ends her sandwich. 

"I'm wondering why you're always agreeing to whatever I'll say." Clem says her thoughts out loud when Ellie actually throws her on the bed. "Your charm is working," Ellie responds and Clem shrugs. "I wonder how else I might use it..." Clem says her thoughts out loud again, Ellie knows what Clem means, and it's making her blush, and fortunately for her, it's too dark for Clem to notice. "Maybe some other day," Ellie says and checks the watch on the shelf next to the bed, it's four in the morning. "We need to be rested if any of us will look like we're about to fall asleep either Joel or Tess will kill us," Ellie warns again and Clem is already wrapped around her. "Well, let's avoid that. And besides, who's Tess? You only talked about Joel." Clem asks and Ellie puts her arm around Clem's shoulder and pulls her even closer. "Joel's girlfriend, I have a sister too, her name's Sarah, well not exactly a sister, but I refer to her like that, she's a kid from Joel's first marriage. She's fourteen, and she'll try to embarrass me as soon as we'll walk inside the house." Ellie explains and Clem nods. "Good to know. Now I'm only more stressed." Clem jokes and Ellie smiles. "Don't worry, if you managed to make Joel like you, then Tess and Sarah will adore you straight away," Ellie says and Clem nods again. 

"I hope so." Clem responds, her voice is getting more and more sleepy, and about five minutes later Ellie hears soft snores coming out of girl laying next to her, her snoring and warmth make Ellie too sleepy to even think straight so she just closes her eyes and pulls Clem to herself again.


	6. Violet/Minnie

Violet woke up hoping that she'll find another person next to her, a certain redhead, but she's disappointed... Again. It isn't the first time Minerva wasn't with her in bed, for the last two months Minnie was going to Violet's place just to fuck, then she disappeared, a few first times she had done that she texted Violet with some excuse, but Violet knew it wasn't true. 

But Violet still loves Minerva, she isn't even sure what Minnie thinks of their relationship, she doesn't know if they're still a couple or some friends with benefits bullshit, but if it's the second thing, Violet just hopes she'll never find out because she'll have some false hope that Minnie still loves her. 

Violet finally stands up, naked, she didn't have the energy to dress back to her underwear last night, well if it would even be in one piece if Violet remembers correctly Minnie tore her panties and bra apart, so Violet just gets up and goes to her wardrobe to dress up. 

Violet can probably just dream to be as happy with Minnie as Clementine and Sophie are, whenever Violet hangs out with two they never seem to be unhappy, little kisses, hugs, sweet words whispered to one another, Clementine and Sophie are almost always thinking of the same thing like they're soulmates, and they probably are soulmates, Violet dreams it could be her and Minnie. 

When Violet is dressed up in some purple tank top and some boxers, she goes down downstairs, and then it hits her, there was music playing downstairs, she's sure that neither her or Minnie turned it on, so someone must be inside her house. 

The closer she got to the kitchen the more fear started rolling down on her. But suddenly she heard someone sing. It's the voice she recognizes and the owner of it is a woman that Violet loves. 

Violet got inside the kitchen and on her bluetooth speaker Minnie was standing with back turned to Violet and listening to some song it's 'No Care' by Daughter and Minnie was singing along with it. But it's that Minnie is still at her house, that's what surprises her the most, that she's still here. 

"Minnie?" Violet whispers, she still can't believe that this is happening. Minnie didn't hear her, because of the bluetooth speaker. 

Violet didn't say anything more, she just closes to distance between them and wraps her hand around Minnie's waist just to feel her presence. 

"I was wondering whey you'll wake up." Minnie says with a chuckle and Violet doesn't say anything she just enjoys the presence of her girlfriend. 

"Vi, we need to speak." Minnie speaks up after a few minutes, Violet feels some kind of fear when she hears Minnie's tone, it's serious, and Violet thinks that Minnie wants to break up with her. 

"About?" Violet asks with a gulp and Minnie sighs. "Go sit in the living room, I'll bring us some coffee and then we can talk," Minnie tells her and Violet just nods and goes to the living room and sits on the couch. 

Violet's mind goes trough worst scenarios she can think of, she can't stop that uneasy feeling in her chest, but she can't do nothing apart from waiting for Minnie. 

After a couple of minutes Minnie appeared with two mugs filled with coffee, she puts one in front of Violet, but she doesn't even touch it, she just waits for Minnie to start speaking, to end this whole mess and meanwhile Minnie sits next to her. 

"So what you wanted to talk about?" Violet asks trying hardest she can to not stutter. "It's about our... Relationship I guess." Minnie starts and Violet can't handle it, she just wants to know if Minnie wants to break up with her. 

"Minnie, if you want to break up with me, just tell it, I understand. I mean, how could I believe that someone like you would want to be with someone like me." Violet manages to say, she can feel tears forming, but she needs to stop herself from crying. "What? No. You're an awsome person Violet, I should be wondering why someone like _you_ would want to be with _me_." Minnie quickly responds, she means every word she says. 

"What is it then?" Violet demands an answer as she's completely lost right now, if Minnie doesn't want to break up with her, then about what she wants to talk about? "It's me. Yesterday I stumbled upon Clem and Sophie, and well... They helped me realize something. I was using you, I didn't notice it, but I fucking did that, and I feel terrible for it, I was hurting you without me knowing it after we were done last night I started to think about this more, and I realized that I can't do it, not anymore. But the other thing is that I love you, I actually do, but I never let that thought to me, I don't know if you still want to be with me, or if you want to break up, but if you'll give me another chance I'll make everything right, I promise, I'll treat you like I should from the beginning." Minnie confesses. 

Violet is at lost of words, she believes Minnie, but she doesn't know what she can even tell, so she decides that action are better than words, she puts her lips on Minnie's and it's other than any other of their kisses, it's full of passion and love. 

After they pull back Minnie looks at Violet still waiting for a response, but now Violet knows what she should tell. "I love you too," Violet admits, even if she didn't really hide it. "Thank you... So what do you want to do? I'm at your disposal." Minnie asks with a smile and Violet thinks about it for a while. "Let's go out and eat something," Violet says and Minnie only nods and stands up. "Go dress, I'll wait for you, I know exactly the place we can go to," Minnie says and Violet nods. 

Around ten minutes later Minnie and Violet are going to some restaurant that Minnie has spotted, hand in hand they slowly make their way to the restaurant, they don't say anything, they just enjoy each other company, but the same thing is in their mind. They can fix what was broken in their relationship.


	7. Clementine/Ellie

"Something's wrong!" Ellie stated. 

"Don't shit!" Lee retorted. 

It was about a week since Joel, Jessie, Dina, and Clem had gone out on patrol. They were supposed to come back within three days, Ellie and Lee weren't worried when they were gone for a fourth and fifth day, both Clem and Joel preferred to take a look further than planned, everyone knew about this, yet no one stopped them, Ellie always tried to make Clem and Joel come back as planned, but they just smirked and told her they'll be alright, but every time they were back, and now? No one heard from them for a week, Tommy, Lee, and Ellie went looking for them but found no trails, they just disappeared, on the sixth day both Lee and Ellie had next to no sleep, they couldn't eat or drink, they planned to gather some friends and scatter to look for them, and they did just that, but no one found anything apart from blood and shells and couple bodies of clickers, but none bodies that were human, what scared Ellie and Lee the most was that clickers could jump group in the night and all of them ended up bitten, and now they're just runners. 

What hurts Ellie the most wasn't only the fact that Joel, someone like a father for her, disappeared, but Clementine too, she was with them from start, since Boston, to Salt Lake City and to Jackson, her and Lee never gone away, they were there when Joel and Ellie needed them the most, Clem saved Ellie's life couple of times throughout those years. Ellie sits on her bed, she hugs her legs to herself and cries looking out the window now and then with the hope that she'll see Clementine, Joel, Dina and Jessie coming back from patrol, all of them fine without a scratch, but she knows it's impossible if they didn't come back yet what are the odds they're still alive? Ellie doesn't know that and the idea of it scares her. 

Ellie still cries as memories of Clementine flows through her mind, from their meeting at Boston, when she was running away from military with Lee while Joel, Tess, and Ellie were doing the same, Capitol Building when Clem saved Ellie's life for the first time, soldier spotted Ellie and if Clementine wouldn't throw that bottle at his head she'd be dead, or captured, then killed because she's infected. Bill's town, the number of little jokes about Bill behind his back was enormous, well they only told them when infected weren't around. Then Pittsburgh, how they survived the jump from that bridge Ellie won't understand, but from what she heard from Clem, Lee saved them, Lee and Clem didn't hit any rock on the way down, Joel did. All memories just flood her mind, sewers not far from Pittsburgh, first time seeing Jackson, well only the dam, that ranch, the university in Colorado, the 'accident' that Joel had in that place and Lee being shot right after, David, Clem was there to help her, always, Salt Lake City, she doesn't know what exactly happened in hospital, but she trusts what Joel, Lee, and Clem told her, that they stopped looking for the cure. 

She cried herself to sleep, she fell asleep for the first time in three days, now she dreams about Clem, she had feelings from her almost since the start, she started to suspect something in Bill's town, but she was sure of it in Pittsburgh, and this feeling only grew bigger, she planned to tell Clementine right after she comes back, but that didn't happen. 

Ellie dreamt how it could be if Clem would reappreciate the feeling that Ellie has, she's sure she can only dream of that, she's sure that Clem doesn't feel anything towards her, yet Ellie still wants to tell her, even if it can destroy their friendship. 

The longer the dream was the worse it got, from Clem getting hurt, to getting bitten, to getting actually ripped apart by clickers, all on Ellie's eyes, but she couldn't do anything to stop it, she could just watch. When it was enough she jolted up, tears already in her eyes, when she was getting up she screamed Clem's name. It was middle of the night, she wouldn't be surprised if Lee had fallen asleep against his will too, she planned on looking outside the window again until she heard the door opening and closing then footsteps, heavy footsteps. Ellie almost jumped from the bed rushing downstairs. 

When Ellie was down she saw Joel standing in the hallway and she just threw arms around him. "I thought you died." Ellie whispers, tears threatening to spill. 

"I'm not that easy to kill," Joel says and Ellie nods and lets go of him, she looks around hoping she'll find Clementine standing beside Joel, but she's nowhere to be found. "Where's Clem?" She asks, her voice is filled with worry and Joel sighs. "Sit down, and I'll tell ya," Joel says, his voice is quiet, something that isn't usual. "O-okay." Ellie agrees and goes to the living room, she knows that if she won't listen Joel won't say anything, but the tone he said it to her, and that he actually told her to sit down make her worry even more. 

When Ellie sits Joel sits next to her and sighs once more. "So?" Ellie asks. 

"So, we were attacked by clickers." Joel starts and before he can continue Ellie interrupts. 

"She's a runner now?" 

"No," Joel responds and Ellie nods a little. "They took us by surprise, and we needed to run, it was sure we couldn't fight them off, Clem tried and shot a couple of those things, but still... We ran off, but Clem was cut off and she had to run in another direction that us, I don't know what happened from there, but we needed to wait for a whole day in one cabin we found to wait for the situation to calm down." Joel explains and Ellie listens as a knot in her stomach tightens by every second, she's sure that story will end in Clem being killed. 

"When we could get out and reach the horses I told them that I'm goin' to look for her, but Dina and Jessie insisted they'll go with me, and they did. We followed her trails, she took down all of the clickers that followed her, but she was at some abandoned mall, we just saw bodies of people, a whole lot of them, we counted over ten, then we found blood trails and we followed them to find Clementine, she was lying in pool of her own blood probably, she had two arrows sticking out of her, one gunshot wound, cuts, and a knife sticking out of her thigh." 

Ellie starts to sob, she hoped that Clem would survive, that they only had to wait for some time, that all of them would get back, but it didn't happen. 

"She's alive," Joel says and Ellie's head jerks up at that, how can she still be alive? 

"How?" Ellie asks and Joel shrugs like even him doesn't know. 

"Not sure, but she's stubborn as hell that I'm sure." 

"Why didn't you told me from the start? Where is she?" Ellie asks, still worry in her voice, maybe she's inside of Jackson, but the amount of wounds she has may still kill her. 

"Infirmary, she's under surgery, they have to take that bullet out of her, as well as the arrows and the knife." Joel answers and Ellie jolts up and just before she can run Joel grabs her by the wrist. "She'll survive Ellie. I'm sure of it." He reassures and lets go of Ellie and she runs out of the house, immediately regretting she didn't take a jacket, it's freezing. 

When she reached infirmary she was told by the nurse she has to wait until they'll end the operation, Ellie tried to argue but it didn't work. 

Now Ellie is sitting and waiting for the results, she's nervous and scared, she isn't sure why, but she can only think that Clem will die. 

Hours go by and Lee joined her too, he tried to get inside of the room Clem is currently in, but that failed so he sat next to Ellie and he looks even worse than she looks. "Did Joel tell you what happened?" Ellie asks and Lee nods not caring to speak, and that's fine, she just wanted to know if he knew. 

Another hour and the same nurse that told them they can't go inside the room approached them. "Surgery is over." The nurse says her voice is cold and Ellie looks up with hope. "She's alive. You can visit her, but she's still unconscious." Nurse says and walks off, a wave of relief wash over Lee and Ellie, they actually thought that maybe the end for Clementine, but she's too stubborn for dying. 

"You go first, I can wait." Ellie says to Lee and he shakes his head. 

"No, you go, I'll visit her later, and I'm pretty sure she'll want to see you more than me," Lee says and Ellie just nods and gets up. 

"I'll call you when she'll wake up." She says and walks to the room Clem is in. 

When Ellie entered the room, she internally gasped when she saw Clementine, she's pale, too pale for Ellie's liking. She sits down next to the bed and grabs Clementine's hand and checks the pulse, she wants to be sure and even if it's barely feelable but it's there, Ellie just now has to wait for Clementine to wake up, she can't speed the process even if she'd want to. 

Ellie had fallen asleep, she didn't think it's possible, maybe it's because she knows that Clem is safe now, she won't know, but what woke her up was much more important than sleep. "Ellie... I think I'll take it easy for some time." Clem says in a weak voice and Ellie had been waiting for a week to hear that voice, she was sure she'll never hear it anymore, and when she heard it, she didn't think just wrapped her arms around Clem. 

"Don't sound so disappointed." Clem jokes and Ellie rolls her eyes. 

"Clem, I'm serious, I thought that you're dead when Joel entered the house and you weren't with him..." Ellie's words die in her throat and her head just falls. 

"Hey, but I'm here am I not?" Clem says. 

"Clem, I almost lost you and that thought alone was too much for me to bear, I couldn't sleep, Lee couldn't sleep, I barely ate anything, you mean too much for me to just lose you over something so stupid as going outside the planned route of the patrol." Ellie retorts and Clem nods, as she agrees with her. 

"I know Ellie, and I won't do it again, I swear, too much to lose." Clem promises and Ellie nods, she just hopes she'll keep to her word. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

The days went by and finally they let Clementine out of the infirmary, she was excited to go, but that enthusiasm was over when the doctor said that she'll be out of anything that requires a lot of movement, so she's left with loading magazines for the patrols, but she still preferred doing that than laying in the bed, she wasn't alone, Ellie was with her whole time, and left only when Clem had fallen asleep, and she was always there before she could wake up. Ellie decided that she'll tell Clementine about her feeling when she'll be out of the infirmary, and now she was out, Ellie was ready, well not ready, but she wanted to throw it off her chest, a burden she was carrying for almost five years. 

Ellie didn't plan this, not at all, she just wanted to go inside the room of Clem, tell her, wait for a reaction and disappear. 

Ellie knocked on the doors and took a deep breath, she wasn't sure what will happen, but she has to do it. "Come in." Clem says from behind the door and Ellie opens them, she can't retreat now, it's too late for this. 

"How are you feeling?" Ellie asks and sits next to the brunette, they're sitting on the bed and Clem shrugs. 

"Okay, I guess... I mean everything hurts, but apart from this, I'm fine." Clem replies, and Ellie nods, she takes another deep breath. "What you need?" Clem asks. 

"There's something I have to tell you, from some time I felt something towards you, like something more than friends, I wanted to tell you but I couldn't, I knew that you don't feel the same, but I had to tell you." Ellie quickly says, it sounds bluntly, but she's surprised she actually told it, she looks down, avoiding brunette's gaze, waiting for a response. 

"Who says I don't feel the same?" Clementine asks and Ellie looks up and sees a smile, a beautiful smile, but Ellie's confused. 

"Wha-" Ellie started but was cut off when Clementine kissed her, she felt electricity going through her, she was surprised by the action, but she melted into the kiss, wanting the moment to never end, and it did last for another couple of seconds, but it ended. 

A hand grabbed Ellie's cheek when she was trying to hide her blush from Clementine and made her look on the brunette. "I feel the same if you didn't notice." Clem says with an even bigger smile than before and Ellie smiled too. 

She felt like all of this is just a dream and that she'll wake up like she did countless times, but she didn't, it wasn't a dream, it was real and before she could think again she connected her lips with Clementine's again, this time bringing more passion and love into the kiss and brunette did the same, it was too good to last, but it did, for another ten seconds before girls pulled away. "I can die happy now..." Ellie mutters still amazed by the situation and Clem just laughs making Ellie's heart flutter. 

"So... What now?" Ellie asks and Clementine shrugs, they didn't know what they should do, and Ellie had a thought to kiss Clem again, but right before she could Lee opened the doors and said that dinner is ready and just closed the doors and ran back down. "There goes the mood." Ellie says slightly annoyed. "We have whole day tomorrow, Lee goes to the school and Joel is helping Tommy again, we'll have the whole house to ourselves." Clementine informs and Ellie nods, silently agreeing to whatever Clem wants to do.


	8. Clementine/Ellie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have way too many ideas for Clementine/Ellie

Ellie sat at the cafeteria in the school trying to eat her food, but she just can't keep her eyes from Clementine, she's sitting with her 'friends', Ellie was sure that none of those people even wanted her around, but she was together with Jessica, the 'queen' of the school, Clem got attention from being with her, she used to sit with Ellie, Dina, Jessie, and Phebe, but Jessica considered her and her friends as lame and made her sit with Jessica and her friends. 

The longer she stared the more heartbroken she felt, the day that Jessica and Clem got together was the day when Ellie had gathered the courage to admit her feelings to Clem, but Jessica was first, just thinking about her name makes Ellie sick, and when she sees how Jessica kisses Clem on the cheek it makes the case worse, but Ellie is sure that Clementine is happy with her new girlfriend, she knows her for a few years now and she knows when Clem is happy and when she isn't, and it's definitely the time when she is happy, Ellie's whole friend group noticed it, but they still have a bad feeling about this. 

"El, I know that you're sad about whole Clementine thing, but believe me, in a week they'll break up." Phebe reassures and Ellie wants to believe her, but her personality doesn't allow her, but she'll believe it when she'll see it. 

Ellie turns her gaze from Clementine and takes a bite of her sandwich. "If Jess will let her, let's be honest, who'd want to leave someone like Clem," Jessie adds and Ellie sighs, Clem was someone like them, a person that was an outcast, well Dina isn't an outcast but she still hangs out with Ellie and the rest, she was adopted same as Ellie and Phebe, but what almost everyone loved about her was that she puts everyone before her, when Ellie had problems with Joel? Clem was there, Dina needed help with studying? Clem was there, Phebe needed someone to play on guitar while Phebe sang? Clem was there, Jessie got threatened? Clem was there to back him up, she helped any way she could. 

"She helped us when we needed her when that bitch will break her heart will be there to help her get through it." Dina says and Ellie nods. "With an emphasis on Ellie." Dina adds and Ellie's face reddens in embarrassment. 

"I still don't understand it, you like her, we know it, Clem doesn't, but why you're embarrassed about it?" Phebe asks and Ellie shrugs, they knew almost from beginning, on one of the not many moments Clem wasn't with them they straight up confronted her about it and when Ellie started stuttering and blushing, they just said that they'd look cute together that made Ellie blush more, not because of their words, but her imagination started to create how it could look, but then Clem was back and Ellie was back to her normal attitude. 

"Well, that... weird." Jessie says, and Ellie looks where he's looking and she sees Jess kissing Clem on the cheek. Again. While her other hand is all over the thigh of the other girl and the group is sure it's isn't in a friendly way. 

"I'll fucking kill her." Ellie hisses and when she wanted to get up to do something to Jessica, Dina holds her back. 

"Don't. Clem doesn't know, and she won't believe us." Dina stops her and Ellie takes a deep breath and tries to calm down, even if the things between her and Clem wouldn't work out she wanted Clem to be happy, when she is happy, Ellie was too, but what that bitch does is ungrateful, she uses Clem for whatever reason that no one knows, no one cared about her apart from the group, her parents aren't important people either, or rich, they were a couple of nobodies, a couple of homophobic nobodies. 

"You heard about that party Louis is throwing?" Dina asks and both Jessie and Ellie groans while Phebe listens. "Well, I have an idea, we'll meet up somewhere in the middle of it at my house and do something more interesting than that party." Dina offers, that sounds better than going to that party, but Dina will probably want to snuck some alcohol from Louis, it's not like he'll notice, so everyone agrees. \---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ellie was out of school and when she was going to her house she saw Clementine and Jessica going in front of her hand in hand, but they turned to a coffee shop which made Ellie sigh in relief, but what hurt her is that Jessica is using Clem, she can't believe it, how someone can use someone like that? Clem is just as innocent as an angel, she was never in a relationship, and the first one she's in will end in tears, tears that Ellie will wipe from her face. 

Ellie is getting closer to her house and her blood boils in her veins, she tried to think about something happy, but that always ended in thinking about Clem and then Jessica appeared, Ellie prefers not to remember what happened next. She just went inside the house, Tess, Sarah, and Joel are home, it's good and bad at the same time, good because there's something to eat, bad because she was hoping for some time alone. "You back kiddo?" Joel calls from the living room and Ellie sighs before responding. 

"Yeah!" She responses and can pretty much say that Joel is nodding, Ellie's next target is changing her clothes and putting her backpack down, it weighs her down and it's worse than usual. When she's changed, Ellie walks down and walks inside the living room and sees Sarah and Joel watching TV, well Sarah watching and Joel pleading with his gaze to help him, Sarah probably made him watch movies he didn't like, Ellie just smirked and went to the kitchen where Tess was cooking something, well struggling, Joel usually helped her, but he's occupied, so Ellie shows something of her good side and without question starts helping. 

"How was school?" Tess asks, Ellie shrugs and Tess practically feels something is off. "Okay, what is it? What girl broke your heart this time?" Tess teases and Ellie scoffs. 

"It's not always about a girl you know?" Ellie retorts and when Tess rose her brew Ellie broke. "Okay, there's a girl involved." She admits. 

"Of course there is." 

"When it isn't?" Sarah jokes followed by Joel's chuckle and Ellie shakes her head wondering how did she end up in that situation. 

"Firstly, language, at least watch it when Sarah is around, and secondly just be there for her, she'll realize the mistake she's making sooner or later." Tess advises, some people might think it's weird that Tess does that, but Ellie won't complain, Tess was the one who's more open than Joel and the one that gives better advice, that for sure, Ellie will never forgive Joel for his advice how to swoon a girl, he told her to be straight forward with her and it didn't work, to say it didn't work was an understatement, it was a few years ago, but Joel still likes to bring it up from time to time, Ellie was never that embarrassed. 

"I hope so, but if we could talk about something else? I'm already pissed as it already is." Ellie begs and Tess nods, they started talking about nothing and everything while still making dinner, that helped Ellie take her mind of Clem and Jessica, she was relaxed until Sarah and Joel were done with watching movies, Sarah begged Ellie to help her with homework, and Ellie agreed only because Joel took over helping Tess. 

While Sarah was doing her homework, Ellie, doing hers, she was done before Sarah was and Ellie helped her. "Thanks." Sarah says and Ellie nods and goes to her room and checks her phone, there's a group chat that she and Dina made to their whole group and it was blowing with messages, mostly from Dina, already making plans on Louis' party, well their party funded by his alcohol. Ellie shoved her phone in her pocket when a notification from snapchat appeared on the screen and it was a photo of her and Jessica, she was done with her phone and went down, she planned on watching some movie to take her mind off her problems, but she heard Tess laughing like a maniac from the kitchen, so she decided to check what's going on. 

When Ellie went inside the kitchen she saw Tess holding her stomach from laughing and Joel, his face whole covered in flour, Ellie started laughing too and Joel was confused, he didn't even know when his face was covered, but he chuckled too and cleaned his face, Tess and Ellie still laughing, Ellie shook her head trying to control her laughing and walked out to watch some movies, Sarah joined her and now they only waited for the dinner, Tess still laughing in the background. \---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Days went on, and Ellie just saw Clem getting worse in her relationship with Jessica, on about fourth day after the 'thigh' incident as Dina called it, Jessica was going out with Clem to the same coffee shop as earlier, but Ellie saw that girl that Jessica was touching approached them and Jessica told something to Clementine and she went inside while Jessica dragged the other girl to the alley and started making out with her, Ellie was furious, and if not Jessie she would do something she would regret, well maybe not regret, but she wouldn't like the consequences, and it was also the first time when she saw Jessie actually angry, he wasn't the one to show it, he was always the calm one. 

When it was Friday and the school ended Ellie had about two hours to get ready for the party, the blanket she was supposed to Dina's home was already there, from what she knows (non-alcohol) drinks and food are there already, Jessie was responsible for food, Dina for drinks, and Phebe will make a playlist, she's the one who knows her way around the music, Dina with Jessie's and Ellie's help set the speakers outside the house, Ellie and Dina had a good laugh when Jessie tripped and had fallen in the pool. Ellie looked down at herself, she didn't really dress at those kinds of events and that was no exception, she just pulled on herself a flannel shirt and jeans, she had another one and a half hour to kill, so she just scrolled through Reddit waiting for time to pass. 

The party had started a few hours ago, Jessie, Dina, and Ellie were waiting for Phebe, she was supposed to be here an hour ago, but she's still not there, Ellie was worried so she called her and they found out that she'll be late because her parents wanted to spend more time with her so they were going to cinema, it was some time ago, so Phebe is probably on her way to Louis' mansion. 

While people danced around them Ellie and Jessie were at the bar drinking some whiskey, if they were going to dance they would only if there wouldn't be anyone else than their friends to laugh at them. 

"Tell me, how is it that we are always the one to watch other people have fun?" Ellie asks Jessie, she's not complaining, but she wants to hear what Jessie thinks of it. 

"Firstly, we both won't dance in front of strangers or people we only know from seeing them at school, secondly, we will dance at Dina's even if we won't want to." Jessie answers, and he's right, Dina will make them dance, Ellie hoped that Clem would go with them, but they didn't even ask her, Dina heard that Jessica takes Clem to the same party they're at right now. Ellie's hand clutches on the glass when she thinks of the popular girl, Clem wasn't stupid, the way that Jessica got to her was playing as nice and caring person when no one was around to warn her, and, unfortunately, Clem believed her lies. 

Then Ellie heard screaming, screaming of the person she hated the most, well maybe not the most David was in front of her by much, but still the person she hated, Jessica, after that she saw Jessica walking out from the dance floor, dragging sobbing and crying Clementine behind her. 

"Be right back, I'm going to whoop her ass." Ellie states, ends her drink and puts the glass down, she half expected Jessie to stop her, but he didn't that made her somehow relieved. 

"Good luck." He calls after her, that made her smile, she walked out, and even if the music was still pumping from the building Ellie was able to hear terrible screaming and someone's quiet begging to stop, and Ellie knew that Jessica was screaming while Clem was begging her to stop. 

Ellie was going to the pair arguing, she wanted to run up there, scream in Jessica's face, told Clem what she had been doing, and make Clem realize that Jessica is a bitch, well the plan with running was a go when Ellie saw Jessica smacking Clem on the face. Really hard. Clem falls down to the ground, and Ellie focuses on her. She helps Clem get up and faces Jessica, she was scoffing, and told Ellie to fuck off and Ellie was having none of it, Ellie hit Jessica right in the face, when she was laying Ellie crouched down and told Jessica what she had done to Clem, she just confronted her and Jessica stood up, faced Clem and told her it's true, no remorse what so ever, then she just left going back to the building. 

Ellie turned to Clem, she was still sobbing, she wanted to apologize, but before she could Clementine wrapped her arms around her, crying in her shirt. "I should know... I'm so sorry, I let myself get wrapped around her finger, I left you, Dina, Jessie, Phebe, I shouldn't... I'm sorry..." Clem apologized, barely even being able to talk, and even if she couldn't see Ellie shaking her head, she knew that Ellie will disagree with her. 

"And we knew from the start and didn't tell you, we thought you won't believe. I'll do everything for you to forgive me." Ellie apologized too, she was feeling guilty, they could warn Clem about Jessica, but they didn't and she felt like shit for that. 

"You're right. I wouldn't believe. She made me leave you, change the clothes I was wearing, she made me go here, and I agreed only because I just wanted to have a real dance with someone and I thought she might give me that, but she didn't, she just started screaming..." Clem says and Ellie knows what she'll do, Clem wanted to have a dance? She'll get one, a slower song started to play, it was only because Louis wanted to dance with his boyfriends and do it before the party will get out of the control. 

Ellie started to drag Clem to the dance floor, she isn't the one to dance a lot, but if it'll make Clementine a little bit better she'll do it no questions asked. "What are you doing?" Clem asks and Ellie turns her head to her, still dragging her along to the dance floor. "You wanted to have a dance, I'll give you one." Ellie explained and Clem smiled, she wasn't crying, but her eyes gave away that she cried, yet no one cared. 

When they arrived at the dance floor Clem threw her arms around Ellie's neck while Ellie put her arms on Clementine's waist. "I still don't understand why you're doing this for me, I left all of you just to... You know." Clem asks and Ellie rolls her eyes, of course, she would forgive her. 

"After all the help you gave to me, Jessie, Phebe, and Dina? I'd be an even bigger bitch than Jessica if I wouldn't forgive you." Ellie explained and Clem gave her a warm smile, it made Ellie's heart flutter, then Clem closed the distance between them and placed her head on higher girl's shoulder, a blush appeared on Ellie's face and she didn't think when she started holding the brunette tighter. 

"Told you." Ellie heard Dina whisper, the music wasn't that loud, so she did hear, Ellie glanced at her and she was dancing with some girl, Jessie still standing at the bar with a small smile on his face. 

The song played along while Clem and Ellie were slow dancing to it, Ellie loves every second of it, she wishes that this moment could last forever, but when that thought entered her mind the song has ended. "Thanks." Clem whispers right before the next song starts playing. 

"El, Phebe is here." Dina informed and in fact she was standing next to the Jessie. 

Ellie nods and tells Dina to get the alcohol and she told her it's already at her house, apparently Dina just asked Louis and he gave some to them, no questions asked, well he was the same age as them, so he didn't get it legally. "You want to go with us?" Ellie asks Clementine and she nods with another smile. 

They all walk out of the mansion and start walking to Dina's house, it will take them at least ten minutes to get there, but Ellie doesn't mind. 

It's quiet, and it seems that everyone likes it, even Dina and it's hard to not see her talking, Clem still close to Ellie, auburn-haired girl had an urge to put her arm around the brunette, but decided against it, even if she does want it she can't, Clem just broke up with someone else and without her making the first move she won't do anything. Yet Ellie is still happy, she was able to make Clem's wish for the night happen and both her and Ellie seemed to enjoy it, she wished that they could have another dance like this and maybe they still had a chance back at Dina's place. 

Dina's parents were out of the town for couple of days which allowed everyone to stay there the night after the party and it was okay with everyone, Clem just messaged her dad that she won't be back for the night and that she'll sleep at her friend's house, Ellie told the same to Joel and he told okay, no questions asked, normally she'd be surprised they let her go without telling her anything against it, but it didn't take her long to realize it was because they had the house to themselves since Sarah was spending the night at her friend's house too. 

When they arrived they didn't waste any time and headed straight to the backyard, Phebe putting on the music, the rest sitting down on the blanket. "So what happened?" Jessie asks when Dina went to her room for alcohol, he talks about what happened with Jessica. 

When Clem didn't answer for some time Ellie decided to do it for her. "Let's say that I did what I told you I'll do." She says and Clem looks at her with a somewhat grateful look. 

Jessie just nods and Dina is back with the whole container of beer, and two bottles of whiskey. "Dina, we're supposed to have a good time, not get wasted." Phebe complains and Dina rolls her eyes and puts everything down, handing everyone a beer. 

"We won't drink it all, I think so at least." Dina kind of jokes and Phebe rolls her eyes. 

They started to have some great fun, they talked at first, reminded themselves of some funny stories that occurred throughout all of those years, the only moment that Ellie didn't count as fun is when Dina reminded all of them when Joel gave her advice, the first and the last time he did it, from that time she always went to Tess. 

Some time after, they got bored with talking and as Jessie and Ellie predicted, Dina made them dance, it was fun, Phebe turned up the volume and everyone lost themselves in the music, all of them were halfway down their third beer, they didn't open the whiskey yet, but it looked expensive. Throughout the whole dance Ellie couldn't keep her eyes from Clementine, she seemed happy, she was laughing, she was smiling, giggling, having a great time, it was a long time since Ellie saw her having any of that, Ellie was proud, she managed to save her best friend from abusive relationship, she made her wish for the night come true, and she's a part of why she's having so much fun right now, Ellie's heart fluttered every time she looked at Clementine, it was the night she realized something. 

She loved her. 

Ellie knew that for some time now, but she just now realized that, she wanted to hold Clementine close, make her happy, comfort her when she was sad and felt abandoned, be around her whatever happens, she'd give everything to make that come true. 

When they got tired they sat back down, everyone ending their fifth beer, Dina stood up and brought five glasses and handed everyone one, and started pouring whiskey inside them. When she was done and they all were sitting, they raised a toast for a great night, great fun and great company. Alcohol burned through Ellie's throat, only she and Jessie were the one to empty the glass at one go. Ellie glanced at Clem again, just to see if her heart would start to flutter again and it did, by every second she was falling more and more for the brunette, and she was hoping that even while being drunk she'll be able to keep her emotions for herself. 

The small party was going well, Ellie didn't realize when they all were in the pool, they were already after six beers for everyone and half-way through another bottle of whiskey, only Phebe stopped drinking after they finished the first one, but that was expected, she's a lightweight, she was in the same state as they were in. 

Ellie got out of the pool and sat at the edge, Clementine did the same. 

"You're having... fun?" Ellie mumbles out, not only she was drunk, but she was also becoming more and more tired. 

"Yeah... It's one of the best nights in my life, even considering what happened a few hours ago." Clem responds, and Ellie nods. 

Ellie didn't thought and she put her arm around the Clem's shoulders, when she noticed that she had done she wanted to take it away, but Clem stopped her. 

"Don't take it... I love you... It, I mean." Clem corrects herself, but Ellie didn't buy it, she wasn't sure if it was because of the state she was in, but she thought that Clem meant saying that she loves her, and so, again without thinking, she took her arm away and kissed Clementine. She felt her heart race, and flutter at the same time, she felt the butterflies in her stomach, her mind was blank, electricity coming through them. 

Their friends whistled at them, but they ignored it and pulled away, Ellie felt sudden flow of confidence and decided to tell Clementine what she feels. 

"I love you." 

"I love you too." She replied and put their foreheads together, Ellie was relieved to hear it for a second, but she was completely shocked by this, she never thought that Clem might love her, but she does, she's sure that Clem means it. 

Ellie was savoring the moment until she noticed the mischievous smirk on Clem's face and before she could tell anything, she pushed both herself and Ellie to the pool, both of them burst out laughing. 

The party went on for another hour to the point where everyone was too tired to continue so they started to go back to the house, Phebe had fallen asleep before that, she just laid on the blanket and Jessie pulled both the blanket and wasted Phebe inside. 

As soon as they got inside, Jessie had fallen asleep on the blanket next to the Phebe, Dina went to her room, while Clem and Ellie had fallen on the couch, Clementine on top of Ellie, Clem's hands around Ellie, Ellie's hands around Clem. 

"I love you." Ellie says, her eyes closed, she says it again with a hope that Clem will say it back. 

"I love you more..." Clem admits and pecks Ellie on the lips. Ellie's heart again flutters, she's happy, she can die happy now. 

Both of them falls asleep yet a same thing on their minds. 

It's the best night of their lives.


	9. Clementine/Violet

Violet lay with Clementine in bed, she was supposed to leave about ten minutes ago to go fishing with Louis and James, but Clem insisted on 'one more minute' and Violet couldn't resist, it wasn't like she couldn't say no she could, but she preferred cuddling with Clementine over anything, she had done it just once and she already loves it and she's also sure that Louis won't be able to keep his hands to himself with James around, they're together for not even two weeks and Violet already managed to walk in on them. 

Knock on the door pulled her out of her thoughts, Clementine was wide awake soaking in the beauty of blonde laying in front of her, she called herself at least lucky to have such an amazing girlfriend even with her past, that everyone knew about, she was a 'mercenary' as some people called it, the group she was in it's called Horizont wasn't big, they focused completely on military power and experience of their soldiers, they could easily take on New Frontier or Delta if they'd plan it properly, she and Minerva was part of that group, it was the way how their friendship was started, they planned an escape, but right before they were free Horizont saw Minerva, thinking quickly Clem told Minnie that she'll make it look like Minerva was trying to catch her, she shot Minnie in the shoulder and punched her in the face and ran away. 

Month later of wandering she stumbled upon the school, she was hurt, nothing serious, but Marlon offered her help, Clem doesn't know how she would initially react if she knew it was Marlon Minnie was talking about, the one that sold her to Horizont, and her sister, Sophie to Delta, Clem was furious when she found out, Sophie was like a sister to Violet, and Minnie... Well, Clem didn't know she was Violet's girlfriend, she wouldn't admit her feelings if she knew, and then Marlon wanted to get rid of the only person that kids from Ericson would believe, he tried to attack Brody with a flashlight, but Clem's reflex prevented him from doing it, then she just pulled him outside and made him admit what he had done, after he was done everyone agreed that he can stay, but not as leader, Clementine volunteered to be one, but she told that she won't do it alone, she chose Violet to be her right-hand, not only she was the one who made impression on Clem from first sight, she was also the only one that made her feel butterflies in the stomach, and made her heart flutter with smallest complements, when Clem found out about Delta's attack, she was ready, prepared, yet it didn't help, Marlon, Aasim, and Omar got caught, the same night she admitted her feeling for Violet. 

After the attack Clem immediately had gone for her gear that she promised she'd never wear again. Her equipment from Horizont, she was planning an attack on Delta to get Sophie back along with the three that got caught, after they were out of ship, all of them without a scratch, all of Delta people on that boat dead, Clem was the only one to go on that ship, no one apart from Sophie, Clem, Omar, Marlon, and Aasim made it back, then she told about her next plan. Getting Minerva back, at all cost, she said her goodbyes in fear it might be the last time she sees anyone from the group, Violet tried to tell Clem that she doesn't have to do it, but Clem made up her mind, she had gone and attacked Horizont's guard post, she didn't kill everyone there, she wouldn't be able to, she had gone for Minerva as fast as she spotted her, Minerva had run for more equipment and both of them ran back to the school, it was close, really close, but they made it back, it took Clem five days to get Minnie back, but she did it. 

It was weird to tell Minnie about Clem and Violet, Clem was doing the talking, and Minnie just nodded, she didn't tell anything, but she didn't seem to be harmed in any way, actually, Minerva told Violet next day that she's happy for them. About a month later, Clem and Minerva rescued two people, James, and Jade, James, shy, yet confident in his skills boy, immediately stole Louis' heart. Jade, tall, redhead with long hairs, and freckles across her face, she was grateful for the rescue and Minnie seemed to be head over heels in not entire week, a week later they were together. 

Clem was happy with how things were going for the group, but the moment she heard the knock on the doors she groaned. "Come on Vi! We have to go!" Louis shouted from behind the doors. 

"Okay! Give me a minute!" Violet shouted back and when she wanted to get up, Clem holds her even tighter, but she was watching out not to hurt Violet. 

"Clem, let go when I'll be back we can continue, but I have to go, you know what Louis will tell the others." Violet asks and Clem groans again, but lets go of her girlfriend's waist. "Thanks." Violet says before putting on her boots. 

"What I'm supposed to do for a whole day?" Clem asks and Violet rolls her eyes, Clem can be like a kid some days, but she secretly liked that part of Clementine. 

"You'll figure something out." Violet says, stands up and plants a kiss on Clem's cheek leaving girl blushing. 

"Yeah sure. Maybe I'll go scavenging and look for that solar panels Mitch was talking about, he believes that he can repair and connect them in here, it'd be nice to have electricity back." Clem says and Violet nods, she wouldn't like Clem going out alone, but she already showed Violet that she can take care of herself. 

When Louis started to shout for Violet again she left and as soon as she saw Louis she hit him in the chest, he started to dramatize about it, Violet rolled her eyes and waved to Clem, she was already gone when Clem waved back. "Don't worry, I'll keep her safe." Louis promises and Clem smiles, he was still cracking jokes at worst moments, but if the situation needs it he can be serious, but everyone knows it's James doing. 

Clem stood up and looked out the window to see when Violet will leave, she had an surprise planned, but she had to go to New Frontier for it, she got back in contact with them lately, her plan is to get a few chickens and do some chicken nuggets, well Omar will, when she was out of the courtyard, Clem started to run down to the courtyard. 

When she was out she approached Omar and asked him if everything was ready, he nodded, she just has to get to New Frontier now, it'll take her a few days at least, she'd be back in the evening if she had a car, but she didn't so she has to plan it well to make her excuse for disappearing for a few days believable. She has also plans to actually look for the solar panels, then get a truck and drove them back. 

Clem had gone out, just to look around the area she knew so well already, she memorized the whole forest, even Brody admitted that Clem knew more about the forest than she does, she was going further and further with every trip with hope to find those solar panels, but luck isn't working in her favor. 

It was almost evening when she got back, meaning that Violet should be back already, she happily jogged to the courtyard, but her mood was down when she saw both James and Louis, but no sign of Violet. "Where's Vi?" Clem asks with worry, she can feel something's wrong just by Louis' expression. 

"We were out fishing, then some people, just started to fire at us, we took cover... They surrounded us, they fought just like you, they had some uniforms, bulletproof vests, machine guns... They wanted you, they asked about you, Violet tried to fight back when she heard what they plan to do to you. She was kidnapped by them, they showed us the location where you're supposed to meet them in a week, if you won't get there they'll kill her and us, they commanded us to say to you, 'Horizont wants you dead'. We don't know what it means." James explains with a calm voice while Clementine's whole world collapsed around her, love of her life kidnapped, by people she used to work for, she felt the tears stinging in her eyes, but she ignored them, it's not the time for crying. 

James showed Clem a map with a small city marked, it wasn't that far from here, actually it's the place from which Clem got Minerva back. "Does Minnie know?" Clem asks, her voice showing zero emotions. 

"No, we just told her Vi got kidnapped." Louis answers and Clem nods, she immediately runs off to Minnie's and Jade's room. 

Clem whole way there was furious, if she wouldn't mess with Horizont in the first place nothing would happen, and now Violet might die because of it, and Clem won't let that happen, she'll do everything to don't let that happen, even if it means she herself will die. Clem knocked on the door and heard Jade calling back from the inside of the room to come back later. "Minnie, it's Horizont, they fucking want me dead, it's all my fault!" Clem admits and Minnie opens the door almost immediately. 

"It's them?" Minnie asks again and Clem nods, she doesn't like it too 

"What you want to do?" Minnie asks and Clem is surprised she even asks her that. 

"I'm going to break my promise for the third time, what you expect me to do? I'm going to get her back, I just wanted you to know that I'm the one who fucked up." Clem explains and Minnie nods. 

"You didn't fuck it up. I'm going with you, it's my fault too, I got spotted first, all of that caused it to happen, let's go get our gear." Minnie says and Clem nods, she's grateful to have Minnie's support on this, it won't be easy because they're expecting her. 

Both Minnie and Clem got inside the cellar and picked up their gear, kevlar vests, assault rifles, magazines to it, and pistols, they were going to get Violet back no matter what, but first they'll get to New Frontier for additional people. 

When they got outside the cellar everyone stared at them for a short while, after that they just continued on whatever they were doing, all of them are worried for Violet, but they know that if anyone can get Violet back it's only Minnie and Clem, they talked a little about Horizont to the rest of group and everyone was afraid of them, and for a good reason, both Minerva and Clementine saw them skin man alive just because he stole two magazines for a rifle, for Horizont it was nothing, but they lead with fear, one thing that Clementine got rid off completely. 

"I'm going to talk with Jade, she might be worried for me, I want her to know I'll be back." Minnie informs and walks off. 

"She should be..." Clementine whispers to herself and hears footsteps, Louis approaches her with guilt all over his face. 

"It's my fault." He states and Clem shakes her head, he can't blame himself for it. 

"It's not your fault, it's mine fault, I should never join Horizont, Violet wouldn't get kidnapped then." Clem retorts and Louis slowly nods, he's tired, she can see it. 

"Tell Brody to go on the watch, you'll take over hers another day." Clementine commands and Louis nods and walks off. 

Clementine goes over to a table where no one sits to wait for Minerva. Clem now wishes she would go with Violet, she could protect her, she had a free day, but she didn't and if something will happen to Violet she'll blame herself to end of her life. 

About five minutes later Minnie walked through the courtyard and joined Clem at the table. "And?" She asks about the reaction of Jade and Minnie shrugs. 

"Not sure, she seemed worried as hell, but I think she threatened to kill you if I won't come back, so yeah..." 

"So, she took it well?" 

"Yep." 

Clementine stood up and called everyone to meet in the middle of the courtyard. When everyone appeared Clementine took a deep breath. 

"For anyone that didn't notice, Violet got kidnapped. I and Minnie will go and take her back, but I don't know when we'll come back, so to the time we'll get back Sophie is in charge, everyone understood?" Clementine informs and everyone nods, both Clem and Minnie head to the gates. 

Right before reaching the gates Jade runs up to them and kisses Minnie. "Come back, promise me you will." She whispers after pulling back. 

"I will, I promise." Minnie responds and Jade nods, she doesn't seem happy about any of this, but no one made Minnie go with Clementine, it was her choice. 

Walking out of the school's territory, Clem knows it'll be long couple of days, no car, nothing to help them reach Richmond faster, at least she has who to talk to, she didn't have it on her first trip to the outpost of Horizont and she felt how she was turning crazy, but now she's turning crazy too since she doesn't know if Violet is even alive, if Horizont's leader won't be an idiot he'll keep her unharmed, he knows what Clementine can do with right motivation. 

# Five days later

At Richmond Javi thought Clem was going to take the chickens he promised her, but she just told she needs two of his best man, he was reluctant at first, but when he heard what's the stake is he agreed, now, Clem, Minnie, Jack, and Elliot are trying to plan how to get inside without getting killed, what's the worst is that the best way is to confront them, any other way in is too secured to even think of getting inside, but Clem won't even talk, she'll just start shooting. 

"Okay, on three we'll start shooting to the guards on the towers, then we'll have about five seconds to rush to the entrance, anyone who will stay behind will get killed, understood? And we'll have to hurry inside, they can't kill her." Clementine commands and everyone nods, she starts counting and as planned, on three, four guards were shot in the head, not even waiting for a second four of them charged to the gates, fitting in the five seconds limit and pushed inside the gates. 

When they were inside, some of the soldiers didn't even manage to grab their rifle before being shot, Clementine knew where they would be keeping Violet so she started to go to that place, it was an old apartment, it was most secure place, but there was only one way in, and most of the soldiers were inside. 

Charging through the camp, shooting don't stop for even one second, Clementine didn't even know when she was whole in blood, but she definitely didn't care, she only cared to get Violet out of this place. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail at them, Minnie, Elliot, Jack dodged flames, but Clem didn't, her jacket was on fire, she just threw it off, but that one moment was enough for Clem to be shot, but the vest stopped the bullet, but it still hurts, yet Clem still pushes forward, shooting everyone that tries to stop her, gets shot without remorse, all of the soldiers of Horizont are scums, Clementine thought that she is one too, she still does, but hides it. 

Before getting to the apartment, Clem commanded to rest to make sure no one will attack them from the back and she herself walked to the apartment, everything seemed like it's in slow motion, she saw Violet curled up in the corner of what once was a living room, everything would be great if not five people from Horizont, Clem aims at one man and pulls the trigger, she then quickly ducked behind a couch, covering herself from getting shot, dust and pieces of wood from walls around her. 

Clem quickly moved to the other side of couch, leaned out and started to shoot again, hitting, but not killing another soldier, right when she wanted to pull the trigger again, she heard a click coming out of her rifle, it was empty, before she could duck again someone shot her in the shoulder, sending her to ground and dropping her rifle, Clem heard Violet scream something, but she ignored it and pulled out her pistol, when a woman tried to finish Clem off, she got shot in the head, only three to go. 

Clem didn't even care for blood streaming down her body, or pain in the shoulder, she just wanted Violet safe, she was ready to die for it. Clem crawled and when she was able she shot another person, first in the leg to make them fall and then to the head. 

She didn't even hear yelling or shots by this point, she just heard her own breathing. Clem stood up and with fast movement shot one guy and the last one was aiming at Clem and she was aiming at him. "Come on kid, even if you kill me, there are twenty more people, coming here to kill you, we knew you'll come here, they'll be here in five minutes, so just give up." The man said and Clem was having none of this bullshit, she just pulled the trigger, and the man has done the same, shotting Clem right in the chest. 

"Clem!" Violet screamed, she didn't even think when she ran to her girlfriend, how fast this day took a turn for worse, she was out fishing with Louis and James trying to ignore his pathetic jokes, and now she was in between of firefight. 

"I'm alright..." Clem coughed and looked on her vest it stopped the bullet, barely, but it did. When Violet crouched down next to Clem, brunette caressed the cheeks of blonde, but another shot pulled her out of the moment. 

"Help me up." Clem asks and Violet complies, when they walk out, the thing about twenty more people had checked out, they were charging at them, and Clem has to think fast to get everyone out, and she has a plan. 

"Okay... I'll hold them off, you three will go along the wall and back to the Ericson, don't fucking look back." Clem explains her plan, no one likes it, but it'd surprise Clem if someone would like it. 

"I won't leave you!" Violet argues and Clem shakes her head, she won't let Violet stay here, she just can't. 

Without thinking Clem connected her lips with Violet's, the kiss was sad and full of agony, but when they pulled back, Clem commanded Jack to grab Violet and he did, Violet didn't have any chance with a taller and stronger man, right before they disappeared Clem whispered. "I love you." 

Clem doesn't remember the whole fight with Horizont, what she knows is that she won, not even sure how, but her vision went black not long after, she didn't even make it outside the gates before she collapsed. 

# Three days later

Clementine jolted up, she doesn't know where she is, or how she got here, but the pain in her shoulder takes her mind from it. 

"You're finally awake." A voice says, a voice she recognizes. 

"How you found me?" Clem asks looking at the person in the corner of a hospital room. 

"One of our patrols found you, they almost thought you're dead, but fortunately they checked your pulse, you're quite a legend around here, some even consider you some kind of god." He jokes and Clem chuckles a little, she definitely doesn't feel like a god. 

He finally walks out of the shadows, Javi smiled and embraced Clem. "You told me it was just some bandits that kidnapped your girl, I didn't think it'll be that many people, if I would know I'd give you more people, you should take at least ten men." Javi kind of scolded her, and Clem rolled her eyes, she had to be quick, if she wouldn't the whole attack would be a failure. 

Then Clem thought of Minnie, Elliot, Jack, and Violet, they could die on their way back here. "What about the rest? Did they die too?" Clem asks with fear in her voice. 

"We didn't found bodies of our people, Minnie, or Violet, they're alive." Javi reassures and Clem nods and starts to stand up. 

"I brought you some new clothes, your old ones... No one can wash all that blood off." Javi says and Clem nods, putting on the clothes that were in a bag. 

"Thanks, but I need to go, I'm sure everyone is worried about me." Clem states and Javi shakes his head. 

"I'm not letting you go alone, I'll drive you there, just show me directions." Javi offers and Clem nods. For once she lets someone help her without insisting that she doesn't need it. 

Javi was leading them to the car, some people looked at Clem weird, but she ignored it, she doesn't have the energy to care. 

When they were reaching the gates of the school, Clem reminded herself of the chickens she wanted, but Javi told her he took care of that. 

She got out of the car and opened the gates, a person on the watch spotted her and jumped down the tower, not believing Clem is alive. 

"You're alive!" Louis shouts and tackles Clem to the ground with a hug, she winces in pain and gets off Clem with a guilty look. 

The whole situation brought attention to them, and everyone ran to Clem, telling her how much they missed her, or how much they're happy to see her alive, but Clementine didn't saw Violet. 

"Where's Vi?" Clem asks and everyone is silent at that question. 

"She didn't take your 'death' well, for three days she sat at that wall, waiting for you, whenever we told her to get down to eat something and get some sleep, she just told us she has to wait for you and that you're alive, we weren't as optimistic as her, but we didn't tell her anything, about ten minutes ago, she fell asleep on the wall, Louis brought her to her bed, she's sleeping." Minnie explains, and Clem sighs in relief, she thought that Violet didn't make it. 

"Okay, I'm going to her, Javi give chickens to Omar, everyone else can go." Clem commands and goes to the dormitory building quickly going to her room, Louis put her there. 

Slowly making her way to the bed, she realized how much her body is sore, but she doesn't care, she just lays down next to Violet, pulling her closer, and putting her head in the crook of Violet's neck and falling slowly asleep, she can't wait to see Violet wake up, but she won't wake her up now, she sees how much blonde is tired. 

# Next morning

"I'm dreaming?" Clem woke up to those words, she smiled and looked at Violet who seemed confused. 

"Nope. I'm here." Clem chuckles and Violet wraps her arms around brunette kissing her across the face. 

"I thought you died..." Violet whispers out, Clem sees tears in her eyes, Clem smiles and hugs blonde, she doesn't care about the pain in her shoulder. 

"You should know by now that I'm not the one to die easily, you'll have to put up with me for a little longer." Clem jokes and hears Violet laugh quietly. 

"I love you." 

"I love you too flower."


	10. No ship honestly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm thinking of making a full story out of this, it'd have a little of explaining what happened before this and the rest would be expanded, I'm not sure how much chapters there'd be but definitely more than 10 and I'm planning to start writing it when Finding Home will start to end and it's getting closer and closer to be honest.

Clementine sat in her room... Well basement as Louis liked to call it, she lived with her whole group and co-workers in one place, a huge house that was in a modern style, glass as walls in the backyard and mostly white and black, but Louis referred to Clem's room as a 'basement' because it was an actual basement, but a huge one, she has a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and living room there, like a whole other house, Clem couldn't stand everyone practically going at it 24/7, so she moved to their massive basement, she likes it there and she won't hear anything from upstairs, she has everything she needs there. 

Clem and almost her whole group work as... Assasins for the mafia, some time ago they were assigned to destroy an enemy of said mafia and they're working on it for almost three months, their hardest job by now, but they changed their style of work too, they try to be discreet so no one will know who attacked them, it's dangerous job, sure, but the money of it is enormous, each person that is doing the same work as Clem has a couple of millions already safely deposited and they were working like that for only four years, Clem is the most experienced and trained of all the people in her house, she was taken by some people after she reached her sixteenth birthday, it was a school in which they trained assassins like her, whole project was destroyed by some group, only Clem survived, everyone else is already dead, but brunette took her revenge, the only reason why she was taken by those people was that she was lesbian and her parents found out and then disowned her, threw her on the street, a couple of days later those people found her, Clem thought about their offer for a moment, they promised place to live, food, support, she couldn't lose anything more, so she agreed, the best decision in her life. 

Short after the school was destroyed she met Louis and the rest, almost all of them were trained in hand to hand combat, using guns, blending in the crowd, anything they would need, but in comparison to Clem, almost everyone already had a person they loved and would give their life for them, Clem didn't meet anyone like that, of course, there was a crush on a couple of girls some time ago but it was old and forgotten by now, she pushed out love of her mind after a date that Louis set up with a guy named Gabe, Louis didn't know that Clem is lesbian, Gabe tried to rape her on that date, no one exactly knows what happened to him since Clem knocked him out before he could do anything serious and drove him to his uncle, she knows him well and she didn't hear what happened to him, but he's alive that's for sure. 

Almost a second week passed since their last attack on the mafia, they pick their targets carefully, thinking which one will be easiest to hit, or if they can hit couple targets at once, James is taking care of it, he's also making sure that no camera on street would spot anyone, he was Louis' boyfriend, he didn't handle people well and somehow he ended up with Louis, he was the one that could swoon over almost every girl or boy he met, he was great with people. 

Even if Clem doesn't like talking to people she would give her life for people above her, she treats them like family, the best one she could hope for. But she still hoped to find that one person she loved, she did have a couple of women with her by now, but usually, it was just a short romance that ended quicker than it ended usually in the morning when Clem woke up in empty bed with a text or piece of paper with 'thanks for a great night' written on it. 

It was middle of the night and in the evening Louis said that he'll look for someone 'new' and by this, he meant that he already knows who will he pick, he was visiting illegal fights in cage, he wanted someone to join them and he was right, everyone had someone to pair up on a job, Clem didn't, Louis has Marlon, Minnie has Violet, Mitch has Aasim, and the rest is supporting the rest in other ways, Brody always knows if someone wants something hard to get and she gets it, Omar cooks, Ruby patches people up, and James takes care of electronics, Sophie helps Omar, then there's Jade, Marlon's girlfriend, she's always checking up on everyone to make sure everyone is fine and doesn't need anything, but mainly checks up on Clem after she comes back from job to check for wounds or anything that happened to her, she once saved brunnete's life, she was bleeding out after coming back from job, but managed to come into her basement before anyone managed to notice she's back apart from Jade, Clem collapsed and Jade called for Ruby, the rest is just patching Clem up and earful from both Jade and Ruby. 

"Clem!" Clementine heard Louis' voice coming down the stairs, he either found someone new or is going to annoy her. 

When Louis emerged from the darkness of stairs, a girl appeared from behind him, she was a little shorter than him, had an auburn-colored hair and freckles on her nose and part of her cheeks and some sort of cut on her left eyebrow, Clem then realized that she's staring, slowly prying her eyes of the girl she looks at Louis. 

"This is Ellie, Ellie this is Clementine, now, since I have a date with James, I thought that you'll show her around here and by thought I mean that you will." Louis says and before Clem can argue back Louis leaves the two. 

After not an entire minute of awkward silence Clem stands up and shakes Ellie's hand. "Nice to meet you." Clem says with a small smile, Ellie replies with the same. 

Clem showed Ellie around and get to know her a little, she seems fine, and if someone would ask Clem she'd say that Ellie is cute, but that's her opinion, and then Clem decided that she won't leave Ellie alone in the crowd of people that are pretty much complete opposite of Clem and Ellie, apart from James and Violet, everyone upstairs is good with people, but from what Ellie said she's terrible with people too. 

"Okay, I'm giving you a fair choice. You either sleep upstairs and since there's no free bedroom you'd have to sleep on the couch that wasn't cleaned in about... A year? Or you can sleep in my basement, there's a couch there too, but cleaner, and comfier, also you won't have to listen to moaning almost every night." Clem offers, Ellie giggles but stops when she sees Clementine's serious expression, and she wants to get good sleep, Louis briefly mentioned what she will do, she isn't scared of that job, wouldn't be the first time when she kills someone. 

"I prefer silence. I'll sleep in your basement, even if it sounds ridiculous." Ellie agrees to the offer, Clem smiles, both of them walks down to Clem's basement. 

When they reach the basement Ellie takes a closer look at it, and spots the couch, but not the bed, also that the basement is larger than her old house. "Okay, I'm curious, did Louis tell why he picked you?" Brunette asks, and Ellie shrugs, he didn't mention anything. 

"Not sure, maybe because I never lost a fight? I don't know." 

"Well, it's late, we can talk some more tomorrow and I don't have any sheets, so I'll buy you some tomorrow." Clem informs and Ellie nods. She then just lays on the couch and hears something hitting ground lightly, she sees that Clem has a bed that hides in the wall, that explains why she didn't see it earlier. 

"Goodnight, Ellie." 

"Goodnight, Clementine." 

"Call me Clem." 

"Sure." Ellie replies another couple of minutes she gives in to sleep already imagining what her life might end up if everything will go well and she also knows that she can't fail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know there isn't much of it, but as I said earlier it'll be developed once I'll start to write this as a full-time story, so I think I'll start in around a month or something like that unless people will actually want me to write this earlier than maybe I'll try but I'd have to consider that. And if anyone wants to know the main ship will be Ellentine, and I don't think it'll change, it depends, I still have time to think about this.


	11. Clementine/Dina

It was weird sitting alone in the house, Clem wasn't used to it since she reached Jackson she was always with someone by her side, at the starts she was either spending her time with Ellie, or Joel, she was able to talk with him and they got along, at the start he was cold and distant, but Ellie told Clem he had done the same when he met her too. Clem met Ellie and Joel at David's camp, she was captured too, she got out and helped Ellie too, but before they could disappear from there they were found by David and his friend, James if Clem remembers correctly, both Ellie and Clem have nightmares from that day, and four years passed since then. About a week after they reached Jackson both Ellie and Clem met Dina and Jesse, then they started to hang out together almost every day. 

Two years forward, Dina offered Clem to move out from the house she lived in with Joel and Ellie, she surprised by that offer, it was not long after she broke out with Jesse, about a week or two, Clem agreed yet she still visited Joel and Ellie almost every day. But not long after she moved in she discovered that she had some sort of feelings towards Dina, she watched how she moves, what she does and says, and just a simple look on her made Clem's stomach do summersaults, she also felt butterflies in her stomach, she was confused by this feeling, she never had them, neither for a boy nor a girl, Clem didn't know what to do, so she went to Ellie, and she didn't want to believe when Ellie told her that Clem liked Dina romantically, Clem was taught by the group she was in that these kinds of feeling are only between boys and girls, then Ellie convinced her by telling her that she has a girlfriend, Kat, Clem then believed, but she didn't know what to do, neither did Ellie, Dina was considered as the most beautiful girl in Jackson, Clem gave up on admitting it to Dina. 

Another year passed and both Ellie and Clem were treated as one of the best warriors Jackson ever had, but they didn't feel that way, always trying to improve their skills, always wanting to reach maximum of their abilities, people in Jackson believed they can protect them from both infected and living people, it was hard, but they managed the best they could, but Clem's feelings never wanted to go away, always finding their way to Clem, she was getting tired of this, Ellie told her that maybe she'll be able to ignore it if she admitted her feelings to Dina, but Clem was scared that it'll break their friendship, she easily considered her the best friend right after Ellie. Living with Dina was entertaining, their conversations were always interesting and filled with jokes, normal dull daily activities were interesting whenever Dina was around and joked around, or was spreading rumors about Jackson's population, she knows more than she should. 

Another year and Clem is now waiting for Dina to come back from a patrol, she usually goes with her, but she couldn't today, she had other work to do around Jackson, but she ended them quickly, and now she was bored out of her mind, normally she would work on fixing a computer, but she wishes that Dina was there to comment her work, fixing this computer was a bet actually, a stupid one. Clem read books about electronics for two weeks, when she felt ready to start she understood that practice makes perfect, sure she had knowledge, but she didn't know how to do it exactly, she was trying to fix it since two weeks by now, Dina always by her side, making all of her rages for not working computer disappear, she's close to fixing it, she feels it, and maybe she'll get some new jobs around Jackson and help other people with their electronic devices. She doesn't spend her time with Ellie, Joel, or Jesse since Ellie is on patrol with Dina, Kat is with them too, Jesse was helping to fix something in his house, Clem offered her help but he refused saying that she was fixing that computer on her own and that he wanted to fix something else on his own too, and Joel was helping to reinforce the walls, she can't imagine how hard it is because of the winter and all of the snow around, she would help but there's nothing more to help with. 

Clem now was playing softly on her guitar, Joel taught both her and Ellie, sometimes they play in duos, as often as they possibly can, and usually both Kat and Dina listened, they were amazed at how girls sound together, it was mesmerizing, they could listen to them whole day, and not get bored. As the sounds were softly created Clem got disrupted by someone hitting on the doors with such force that it had to be urgent. Clem got up from the couch, laying the guitar on it. Clem opens the door and sees Kat, really scared, but what worries Clem is that neither Ellie or Dina is with her. 

"Clem, please get dressed! We have to go!" Kat says in raised voice because of the blizzard outside. 

"Sure, but tell me what's going on." Clem says after letting Kat inside. 

"We were looking for a place to wait through the blizzard, we went to an abandoned mall, then out of nowhere they attacked us." Kat replies and tries to catch her breath. 

"Infected?" Clem asks, she's now worried as hell, but she has to know every detail, and when Kat shakes her head a chill goes down her spine, she knows that Ellie can take care of herself, but she isn't so sure about Dina. 

"Fuck..." Clem mutters under her nose and lowers her head trying to think of a way out, she has to go get them, that's for sure, but she doesn't know how. After a couple of seconds, Clem looks back at Kat. "Give me a minute, I'll get ready." Clem says and runs upstairs, and to her bedroom, she has her own bedroom which kind of makes her happy and unsatisfied, happy because she has a place where she can zone out and be herself without anyone judging her, but unsatisfied because she would give everything for Dina to lay next to her. 

Clem puts on her red leather jacket, and combat boots, she looks inside her backpack and sees that her pistol is still there as well as the holster and couple of other essentials. She pulls out her holster, puts in on and places her Glock 19 in it. She puts on her backpack where it belongs, on her back, and rushes down to Kat, she's standing, waiting for her. 

"That was quick... Okay, let's go." Kat says amused, it wasn't even two minutes since Clem rushed up the stairs. Clem nods and they walk out of the house, Clem locks it and they both run to the stables. 

"Does anyone else know about it?" Clem asks when they reached the stables, Kat shakes her head, Clem knows that Tommy probably wouldn't send anyone after them because of the blizzard and risk of getting lost in woods surrounding Jackson. 

They ride out the Jackson, guards letting them through, Kat told them that they needed Clem for a reason she didn't tell them, Clem was happy they weren't stopped by the guards, it would slow them down, those couple of minutes might be crucial. 

Riding as fast as they can they reach the mall in a couple of hours of a tiring ride through the blizzard, it was slowly dying down, but it's still hard to see a thing, maybe it won't be that bad in the mall. "It's here." Kat yells and points at a huge building. 

"Follow my lead and don't do anything unless I tell you so." Clem commands and sees Kat nodding, her reputation has it's pros. 

Leaving horses behind them they start to get close to the mall, Clem and Kat can hear gunshots from there, she isn't sure how long they have been fighting, but it was for long, that's for sure. 

Girls enter the mall and sees flashes from gunshots, it's on the second floor, Clem quickly sneaks to the stairs, Kat behind her, it's risky to go through there since it's an open area, but they have not much of time. When they got on top of the stairs they saw a man, hiding behind a bookshelf, using it as cover, Clem pulls out her knife and gets closer to him before he can see them she covers his mouth and stabs him in the neck. They hide on the other side of the bookshelf, trying to avoid detection, they hear Ellie cursing, and locate where she is, Clem looks at Kat, asking her without words if she's ready, when Kat nods they move from cover to cover, trying to reach Ellie. 

They got closer, they're right next to the shop Ellie is in, they look if they can move, they can but it's risky, someone might spot them and that'll result in even more risky situation. Getting shot. But they have to risk it, they won't be able to do anything if they stay there. Taking an opportunity that no one was Clem and Kat sneaked inside, quickly moving to Ellie and hiding behind the same cover as her. "What the hell are you two doing here? I told Kat to run away." Ellie asks in a surprised voice, she almost shot them. 

"Like I'd leave you dumbass. Where's Dina?" Kat asks, Ellie leans out of her cover, trying to look for something, then she quickly points at another shop with vinyls. "There. We got separated, and I can't reach her, but now that you're here... It's possible." 

"Okay, cover me, I'll flank them, check on Dina, and if possible we'll attack from the side, Kat stay with Ellie." Clem thinks of the plan and says it out loud. Ellie nods, as well as Kat. 

When Ellie and Kat open fire Clem sneaks out of the shop and hides behind a couch, she doesn't even know how it ended here, but she doesn't care. Other people open fire on Ellie and Kat, they take cover, Clem using the moment of them being distracted, and moves forward and hides behind a pillar. She's three shops away from the shop with vinyls, she looks and rushes to another bookshelf, and hears the other people cursing as one of them falls when Ellie shot him. She runs to another pillar, it's risky since they can spot her, but she manages to reach it before they can spot her. She looks at the shop in which Dina is hiding, she hears deep breaths from there, Clem's almost in front of it, she makes a run for it, and jumps through the counter and feels something piercing through back of her shoulder making her fall on her abdomen. "You scared the shit out of me! Wait, Clem?" Dina asks and gasps when she sees an arrow sticking from the back of her shoulder. 

"Fuck! It hurts." Clem cusses and groans. "Pull the arrow out." Clem commands, Dina nods and does as she's told, another scream of pain from Clem when Dina pulled the arrow out. 

"Oh god, I'm so sorry." Dina apologizes because of the guilt she feels because she hurt her friend. 

"Don't worry... I was so worried about you." Clem says, not caring for her wound. 

"You should be worried about yourself, you just got shot!" Dina scolds her, making Clem smirk. 

"As I said, don't worry. Can you fight?" Clem asks, Dina nods slowly. "Okay, follow my lead. We'll get out of here." Clem reassures. 

Clem leans from behind her cover and sees that one of them is closing in, but he doesn't spot her, Clem pulls out her pistol and shots the man before he can react, he falls dead after two shots, Clem rushes from behind of her cover and hides behind pillar she was behind earlier. "Okay, I'll cover you and you run behind that couch," Clem says and points at the couch not that far from her. "You have to count how many of them there are." 

Dina nods and when Clem gives her a signal she runs to the couch, Clem shooting at their opponents. Clem takes cover when Dina reaches the couch, she managed to shot one of them in the shoulder, Dina shows her three fingers. Clem leans out of her cover and shoots again, a man tries to charge at her, but he got shot in his ribs before he could get to her, he coughed with blood for a while before bleeding out, Clem changed her target and shot a woman, her head was visible from behind her cover. There's only one now, Clem leans out again and charges at the man, he's preoccupied with shooting at Ellie's position, she pulls the trigger and the gun clicks, it's empty, and the man heard that he turns to Clem but before he can pull the trigger she throws her pistol at him, hitting him in the head. She throws herself at the man and starts punching him in the face, and while she tried to pull her knife out he managed to kick her off. 

She charges at him again, but he's ready for her now and tries to stop her but she headbutts him and punches him three times in the ribs before pushing him on the rail of and headbutting him again, she throws him off the second floor, she just hears him hitting the ground, making a crunchy noise. "It's clear!" Clem shouts to Ellie and Kat, they look out and show thumbs up showing her that they're alright. 

Dina runs out of her cover and tackles Clem in a hug, which Clem reappreciates, making the butterflies in her stomach go crazy. "I was so worried about you." Dina whispers, she sounds scared and a little shaken by what just happened. 

"Don't worry, I still have to win that bet with Ellie." Clem jokes and Dina rolls her eyes, Clem has an urge to kiss Dina right now, that brown eyes mesmerizing her, but before she can even move Dina closes the gap between them, her lips in sync with Clementine's, Clem was surprised by what just happened, but she kisses back with the whole passion that gathered since Clem started to like Dina. 

"Wow..." Clem whispers out when Dina pulls back, Dina giggles and gets off Clem helping her get up, but grabbing the wrong arm, and making Clem wince on the way up. 

"I'm sorry." Dina quickly apologizes, Clem shakes her head. 

"Not your fault, but Tommy and Maria will kill me when they find out that I went here." Clem complains. 

"They should be kissing your feet for what you did, only Joel would have to courage to go and help us." Ellie says while she walks to them, Kat behind her. 

"I doubt that'll happen, Joel will want to kill me too. But it was worth it." Clem informs, sending a small smile to Dina, Ellie and Kat don't know what happened, and maybe that's for better. 

"Can we go? I don't want any more fighting." Kat asks Clem nods. 

"You see the thing is that... They took our horses." Dina admits, Clem groans, she doesn't blame them, but that's another lost horses. 

"You'll ride with me, Kat with Ellie." Clem announces, they start making their way back down, blizzard died almost completely, making it able to see again, the amount of snow that fallen in the past few days is huge, but it's nothing new in Jackson county. 

When they reach the horses Clem helps Dina up her horse, and Ellie does the same with Kat, it'll get dark soon, they should wait it out, but the blizzard might come back and that'll be worse than riding in the dark. Slowly riding forwards Clem felt Dina hugging her and placing her head on her healthy shoulder. "When we'll get back I'll patch your wound up." Dina promises in a whisper. 

"Sure..." Clem replies, her voice is distant and Dina hears it. 

"You're alright?" Dina asks in worry, thinking that her wound started to bleed even more. 

"Yeah, just... Still processing what happened in the mall." She replies, Dina nods and lays her head back on Clem's shoulder. 

"You mean what happened during the fight or after?" Dina asks with a smirk, Clem blushes a little. 

"Kind of both, but the second one more." 

"Good..." Dina replies as she starts to drift off to sleep. 

The whole ride back Clem had a huge smile plastered on her face, she didn't care for her wound, she cared about the girl, softly snoring on her back, the girl she kissed a couple of hours ago, she never thought it's possible for Dina to like her back, she thought that she didn't like the girls same way as Clem does, but she does, and that makes Clem feel warm inside, she feels wanted by someone she loves. 

When they got back to Jackson they saw Joel standing in front of stables, Ellie's patrol should come back hours ago and when they didn't he waited at her in front of the stables, getting more worried by every second. They lead the horses back to the stables, Clem wakes Dina afterward, she yawns and stretches like a cat. "Come on Dina, we can go home now." Clem says to her, she nods and gets off the horse, Clem does the same. 

Clem and Ellie were walking in front while Kat and Dina were going after them, when they left the stables Joel approached them with a relieved expression. "Where the hell you two were?" He asks and Ellie tells him what happened, he nods and tells Clem to inform him if something like that happens again, Clem agreed. 

"Come on, we have to patch your wound up." Dina hurries, Clem nods, Joel looks at them. 

"What wound?" He asks, Clem shows him, he insists that she should go to the infirmary, yet Dina reassures him that she'll patch her up back at their house. 

Clem and Dina walk away from Joel. Kat, and Ellie, Kat, and Ellie go with him only because their house isn't far from Joel's. 

They reach the house and Clem collapses on the couch, being tired, Dina tells her not to stain the couch in a joking matter and then she disappears in the bathroom for some peroxide and bandages. "Okay, take your jacket off, shirt and hoodie too." Dina commands, Clem nods and does what Dina said. 

After some cursing from Clem her wound is cleaned and bandaged. "Was it that hard?" Dina asks with her hands on her hips, Clem rolls her eyes. 

"Get shot with an arrow and get it patched up, we'll see what you'll tell then." Clem complains, she looks at Dina and smiles, Dina smiles back. 

"Tired?" 

"Yeah..." Clem replies, Dina nods and starts walking upstairs, Clem goes after her and when she turns to her room Dina grabs her wrist. 

"Where do you think you're going?" Dina asks pretending to be offended. 

"Uh... To my bed? I'm supposed to sleep on the floor?" Clem asks, and Dina chuckles. 

"No silly. I have to have a close look at that wound, so you're sleeping with me." Dina lies, she just wants to feel Clem next to her. 

Clem blushes and nods, Dina starts to drag her to her bedroom, Dina takes off her boots and lies down, Clem doing the same. 

"I have question." Dina announces when Clem has her eyes closed. 

"Shoot." 

"If I'd tell you to cuddle me, would you do it?" 

"Yep." Clem replies with a blush, and Dina turns on her side, wanting Clem to spoon her, and Clem does just that. 

Clem feels warm inside, butterflies in her stomach raging on as Clem hears to Dina's soft snores, she loves that sound and she feels as she gets addicted to it, she wouldn't give anything for it, she hopes to listen to it forever, but she knows that she needs to sleep, so she closes her eyes. 

"I won't let anyone hurt you." She whispers her promise and minutes after that she falls asleep with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it came much longer than I wanted it too, it was supposed to be short, no more than 1000 words, and it's 3000 thousand. And tell me if you want to see what happens with a bet between Clem and Ellie.


	12. Clementine/Violet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Metro AU it has spoilers for all of the games and maybe for the book Metro 2033, I'm not sure since I didn't end the book yet and I may mix some facts from games and the book.  
> They all talk in Russian unless I tell so and when they talk in English.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really long, it wasn't going to be that long but after I reached 10k I knew I can't stop and this already was cut because my computer lagged so hard after 20k+. I'm actually proud of this work, and I hope y'all don't hate me for waiting for so long.

Clementine sat and watched the sea, she wasn't far from Miller's grave, but far enough not to think about him, she was picked to be Artyom's second in command not that long ago, she was picked because she helped Artyom with Dark One's nest a couple of years ago as well as the little Dark One, she wasn't listening to Miller's orders on that mission, but Artyom's she trusted him more, she has the same 'gift' as Artyom have but she got it a little bit earlier she got abandoned in Moscow by her parents she doesn't even remember them, Dark Ones used their powers on her and that was that, some Rangers found her and Lee took her in, their life wasn't easy but they managed, years went by in VDNH station and when Hunter asked Artyom to reach Polis she volunteered too, she and Artyom were friends for some time, Hunter agreed reluctantly and since then Clem and Artyom were inseparable, always helping each other out. She went with Miller back in Novosibirsk, she was the one to save Artyom after he fell from the building, she had poisoning from radiation but it wasn't as bad as Miller's and Artyom's case, she would live, she couldn't say the same about her companions, Miller had the last Anti-Rad and he made Artyom use it, Miller died, and Artyom almost died too if not for everyone back at the Aurora, he would, but they gave their blood to save him, she couldn't do it herself because she had rads in her blood, but she helped to keep Anna sane, she wanted to give her blood when she woke up, Clem managed to persuade her out of it by saying that the rest will handle it and that she's in no state to do so. After Artyom was awake, actually awake and not mumbling because of fever, he told what he heard from Miller in his sleep, he managed to find the place where he wanted to be buried and after making sure it's safe they stayed there. 

But not that long ago, a day ago, Clem found bandits camp, not big, but if they'd find Artyom's small community and attack at night, they'd win and probably kill everyone. There's another thing that scares Clementine more than attacking that camp, when she was in Novosibirsk she had hallucinations because of radiation, she saw a blonde girl with really pale skin, almost whenever Clem got close to her she'd turn into bones, yet one time she spoke to her in a soft voice that they will meet soon, it was over a month ago and when Clem was checking the bandits camp she saw the exact same blonde girl in there, as a prisoner along with a couple of other people, that was the point where Clem knew she had to save those people, only Anna found out about that camp, Clem told her when Anna caught her while sneaking back, she admitted it because Anna would see through her lies immediately. 

She plans on attacking the camp this night, that's why she watches the sea, she's afraid it might be last time she'll ever see it, she'd ask someone to help her but she just can't let anyone get hurt because she recognized a girl she saw because of radiation it might not be her after all. She really hopes to get back, she promised to go with Alyosha back for Olga, he'll go for her in a week, then Artyom wants to get some people from metro here, just a couple of trusted people and Clem wants to use that occasion to get Lee, Carley, and AJ here, they'd love it here, especially AJ, he could have a childhood, sure it wouldn't be the same as from before the bombs, but still better than in metro. 

"I figured I'd find you here." Anna says, she sits next to Clem and watches the sea too. 

"Everbody knows that if I find some free time I usually sit here." Clem responds, not looking at Anna. "If you're going to try and change my mind about not going to that camp then don't even try it, I'm not changing my mind." 

"Clem, we need you here, it's not going to help if you'll get yourself killed." 

"I won't get myself killed, I fought with three mutated gorillas, won with them, and in meantime made sure they won't kill Artyom, and ten bandits are supposed to kill me? How many times I was on a mission that qualified as a suicide mission? Too fucking many." Clem retorts, she hates that everyone thinks she might die because she's youngest of all of the people here, if Sam or Stepan would want to go and take care of that camp everyone would agree, they'd just ask if they're sure they want to do that alone. "I was fifteen when I and Artyom went up that tower to blow the Dark One's nest." 

"I know Clem. You were sixteen and you were placed on the front line and had been told to fight, it was a miracle that you, my dad, and Artyom and the rest survived. You almost lost a leg, I never heard anyone shout at my dad as Lee and Carley did after my dad personally went to VDNK to tell them what happened, you were still unconscious, I think that Lee could actually beat him if you died." Anna tells her, Clem never heard that story, Lee and Carley didn't mention it neither did Miller but she can quite possibly imagine it, she remembers when a kid threatened her in the VDNK because his parents told him to do so, Lee found out and let's just say that Clem never heard Lee throw so many obscanities at someone. 

"Anna, you want to know why I want to do attack them so much?" Clem asks with annoyance in her voice and Anna nods, Clem is aware that Anna might not understand, Artyom probably would but she has to believe that Anna will too. 

"You remember that girl I told you about? I saw her while I was in Novosibirsk." Anna nods again. 

"So those bandits have a couple of prisoners, and that girl looks the same, I think she might be the girl I saw, I'm not sure but if there's a chance it's her I'm willing to take it." Clem explains, thinking that Anna will argue that whatever she saw in Novosibirsk couldn't be the same girl. "And there's a thing I didn't tell you about that girl. She spoke to me in Novosibirsk, she told me we'll see each other again sooner than I think, and maybe it's what she meant? That I'll actually see her, and not a hallucination." 

"Well... Okay, I'll let you go, only if you'll take someone with you. We need you here, you're second in command of whole Sparta Order, people need you here, and they'll need you when you and Artyom will go back to Moscow, we can't lose you, not now." Anna says it would have been perfect if not that she have to take someone with her. 

"You suggest someone? I'm thinking of Stepan or Sam." Clem asks, Anna thinks about her question for a while, Clem would take Stepan because of his experience and no matter how much Clem wants to avoid confrontation she prefers having someone who can keep their heads on level 

"I'd say either Stepan or Duke, Sam won't be staying with us for long now and I don't know if he'll want to risk it." Anna suggests, Clem wishes that Sam would stay, he promised to get back, but who knows how long will it take and if he'll even survive the trip to the United States. 

"I'll take Duke, he won't forgive me if I won't take him on such an important mission, and I'm scared of Katya." Clem jokes a little, Katya did send a threating look to her when she and Stepan went to scout if this place is as safe as they think. 

"When do you want to go?" Anna asks. 

"This night, we should reach their camp tomorrow evening, I need to tell Duke and Artyom." Clem says as she starts to stand up, Anna does the same. 

"Then go. I'd say that you should talk to Duke first, Artyom might want to go with you if you'll tell him that Duke won't even know that you want him to go with you." Anna suggests, Clem nods and walks off, she passes Stepan, Katya, and Nastya. They found a small village not far from the coastline, no radiation in there so now they have some houses, it's not big, but not small either, it should fit around one hundred people, Clem has her own house, Artyom lives with Anna, Stepan lives with Katya and Nastya. Duke, Alyosha, Tokarev, Idiot, Yermak, Damir, and Sam have their own house too. Clem knocks on the door leading to Duke's house, not long after he tells it's open. 

"Oh, commander, I report for duty!" He says mockingly and does a salute, Clem rolls her eyes, it's not like she doesn't like Duke's jokes but she really isn't in the mood. 

"That's good, I need your help with something." Clem says, he raises his eyebrows at this, not expecting it. "There's a camp of bandits in the area, not an entire day of walking, they have some prisoners, and I wish to talk to them, so I guess you want to help me with it?" She continues and he immediately nods and picks up his rifle, Clem chuckles at his enthusiasm. "Not now, we're going in the night, we don't want to stumble upon their patrol or something like that, sure mutants are in the area but we can move in the woods so we won't have to worry about Demons." 

"Okay, but how much do we know about that camp?" He asks and Clem tells him what she knows, poorly armored, only ten of them. "It'll be easy." He says with confidence. 

"Don't be so sure of yourself, you know what happened at Yamantau, we were sure it's safe and you know how it ended." Clem warns him, he nods, whenever she thinks that if she would go just a couple minutes later to that bunker it could end in everyone being dead already. 

"I guess that Artyom knows about that camp?" He says, and sits on his couch, it's in a good shape, the whole village is in good shape honestly, some of the buildings are destroyed, but the rest are in good shape as well as the furniture which was surprising to say the least. 

"No, only Anna, me and you know about this, but I'm going to him right after I get out of your home." She informs him, he nods again and chuckles. "What's so funny?" 

"My home... It sounds weird, it was just a dream to have your own house on the surface back in the metro, and now? You and Artyom are making this possible." He says in a low voice, but loud enough for Clem to hear him. 

"Everyone is doing their part, everyone is making this possible, not only me and Artyom." She says and he shakes his head. 

"I wouldn't be so sure, you two were doing most difficult missions, sure all of us somewhat helped, Katya by saving Artyom, me on that bridge back in the Volga, everyone did something, but you and Artyom did most of this. Idiot would probably say it in a more smart way, but you know what I mean." He retorts Clem sighs, he is kind of right. 

"Don't beat yourself up. I don't want you to think that you're useless." Clem commands and he nods. 

"I don't think that way, you don't need to worry about that, I just think that you and Artyom are doing most of the work, and you're youngest if we don't count kids." Duke explains, Clem nods. 

"Good. Okay, I need to talk with Artyom, see you later." Clem says and walks out of the Duke's house. She takes a deep breath and hears some laughter, she looks to her right and sees Stepan playing with Nastya, Katya watching them, Clem smiles lightly at the sight and she keeps on walking to Artyom's and Anna's house. She knocks on the door and Artyom's voice is hearable from inside telling her to get in. 

She gets in and sees Artyom looking on some papers, maybe some maps or maybe some of Miller's old documents, well not old as most of them were made when they traveled across Russia but it seems like it was so long ago. "Oh, I didn't know it's you, I thought that Stepan is going to talk about getting some solar panels or generators here... Again. Anyway, what do you need?" Artyom asks as he puts the papers on the table next to him, he looks at Clem and waits for the answer. 

Clem explains to him what she saw at the camp and that Duke agreed to help her, she also mentioned what she saw at Novosibirsk. "I understand... If I didn't know Anna and saw her at that camp after seeing her in Novosibirsk, I'd do the same. You can go. But please be careful." He asks her, she nods. 

"As always." She jokes he laughs at this. 

"Yeah sure, I'll be surprised if you and Duke will come back in one piece. And bring the people that those bandits have here, maybe they'll want to stay." He commands, Clem nods with a smile and walks off, if there's one thing that Clem likes in her and Artyom being in command is that they don't make it all official and still joke around with each other and the rest. "Oh, and Clem?" He calls out before Clem can get out of his house. 

"Yeah?" 

"You know that you don't have to ask me for permission to do anything right? Especially if it does include making this place safer." Artyom informs. 

"If not for Anna you wouldn't even know when I would be gone and when I'd be back, you know me so you know that I can sneak out without being noticed, Anna is the only person that ever noticed me and she made me tell you about that camp." Clem says and without waiting she walks out, she has to start getting ready for the night. 

Clem is already up, she slept in the day so she's rested for the mission, it's late evening, her whole equipment is laying on her table, her military backpack, modified Kalash it's modified to be more reliable in combat from up close along with a suppressor, whenever she's fighting she likes to sneak behind enemy lines and attack them from inside, she has also three magazines for her rifle. Clementine stretches again and puts on her Spartan suit, which is also modified by herself to be more useable while sneaking, maybe it doesn't provide the same protection as the normal suit but she still feels safe in it. 

She walks outside her house, her backpack on her back, her rifle hanging from her shoulder, gas mask on her belt along with three magazines. She's on her way to Duke's house when she hears someone running up to her, if she was somewhere else she would reach for her rifle but she knows she doesn't have to, not here. "Aunt Clementine! Where are you going? Mom won't tell me." Nastya runs up to her, Stepan and Katya behind her, Katya carries some kind of food, of course, Artyom told everybody about her mission. 

"There are some bad people, I and Duke are going to check if they are a threat to us." Clem explains, she kneeled to be on Nastya's height. 

"And what will you do if they are?" She asks Clem, she thinks for a second about an answer to that question, she knows what she'll do, but how she's supposed to explain that to a kid. 

"Clem will convince them to go away." Stepan answers for Clem, Katya nods making Nastya believe it. 

"We made you and Duke some food, it should be enough to go by for a couple of days." Katya says and hands Clem a bag full of food, it's too much. 

"I can't take that much. We should be back in two days and I don't intend on going anywhere else." Clem replies trying to hand the bag back. 

"Take it, Artyom told us that there are prisoners you are going to get here, they might need it and besides you and Duke always eat the most." Katya insists, and she's right about both her arguments, Clem nods but she's worried about how much Artyom told everyone. 

"Thanks." Clem says and walks off, she's sure that all of them will go to see Clem and Duke off. Clem runs off to Duke's house she should be there a couple of minutes ago if there's something Clem hates it's being unpunctual. She knocks on the door and Duke opens them, he has his gear which is a standard Sparta suit, Kalash with a slightly bigger magazine and reflex sight and backpack similar to Clementine's. 

"You ready?" Clem asks him, he nods and walks out of his house, closing the door behind him. They start walking to a sort of a gate that Clem and Artyom had built not long after they settled there, they reinforced the fences too. Most of the people waited for them there only kids were absent as they're probably in bed by now. 

"You're acting like we won't come back here." Clem says with sarcasm after they approached the gates. 

"You're surprised? It's a few days mission and you're taking Duke with you." Sam jokes, some people laugh at this, Duke and Clem included. 

"Okay, jokes aside since you're here I guess that Artyom told you all about that camp, but how much did you tell?" Clem asks Artyom. 

"Everything apart from that one detail that is only important for you." He says, Clem knows now that he didn't mention that girl, the rest is clueless, maybe apart from Anna, sure some people asked right away what he means but he told that they don't need to know. 

"Okay, you can go now. How long you probably will be gone?" Artyom asks, Clem thinks about that question for a while. 

"Two or three days, four at most." Clem explains he nods and tells that if anyone wants to go home they can, so not long after only Artyom, Anna, Clem, and Duke were by gates, the rest too tired to refuse Artyom's offer. 

"You're sure you want only Duke with you? I or Anna can assist you too if you want to." Artyom offers, but Clem shakes her head. 

"We should be fine, as I said, they aren't armed well and there are only ten of them, nothing I couldn't handle." Clem assures he nods. 

"Okay, we need to go, we have a whole day of walking ahead of us. Bye." Clem says, Artyom and Anna nods and look as Clem and Duke are walking outside their village, Clem already put hood from her suit on her head making her almost unnoticeable in the dark. 

About half an hour away from the village Duke spoke up. "Whole fucking day? What about the food?" He asks with slight worry in his voice. 

"Don't worry, Sam and Katya made us some food, it should be enough for a couple of days, and we will have breaks, don't worry." Clem reassures he nods at her explanation. 

The hours went by and it was already after sunrise, Clem took her hood off as it didn't help anymore, they had two breaks to rest, and on their next one they will be eating. "This building, you think we can have a break in there?" Duke asks as he points at a barn, half of it collapsed but the other half is in good shape. 

"Probably, let's check it out first." Clem commands, she grabs her rifle and presses the stock to her shoulder and aims at the huge door leading to the barn. She listens but she can't hear anything inside she looks at Duke, he knows that she wants to know if he hears anything and he shakes his head. "On three we kick the door in." She whispers, Duke nods and focuses on the door. 

"One." Clem whispers, she and Duke pull the bolt and put off the safety. 

"Two." Clem hears Duke take a deep breath in. 

"Three!" Clem says with a raised voice, she and Duke kick the door, they don't open but completely fall to the ground, they get inside and cover each other while checking the barn out, Duke moves away from Clem to check another side of the barn while Clem checks the other, she looks behind hay and she hears a growl from behind her, she quickly turns around but nosalis already jumped at her before she could pull the trigger and pinned her to the ground, Clem puts her left hand in front of her, mutant bites the bracer on her left wrist, it teeth didn't get through the bracer, Clem used that to her advantage, she pulled her knife out and stabbed the nosalis in the eye numerous times to the point where it died. 

"You're alright?" Duke asks after he ran to Clem, he helped her get the nosalis off her, she nods and looks at her bracer it stopped the teeth and it's still in almost perfect state. Duke moved his hand to help Clem up, she grabbed his hand and he pulled her up. 

"It's the only one here, there are no signs that they have a nest in here, I think that it got lost from its herd and got here." Duke says to Clem, she has blood all over her suit and some on the face, she just wipes it off with her sleeve. 

"At least it's clear, come on, let's set up a fire in here and get something to eat." Clem says Duke nods. About half an hour later they have a fire going inside of the barn, they also got rid of the corpse, it wasn't easy to find firewood, and it was even harder because it rained yesterday. 

"How far that camp is?" Duke asks as he eats some kind of meat, rabbit's probably since Alyosha went hunting once and brought back a lot of them. Clem looks at the watch on her bracer it's thirty-four after eleven. 

"I don't know how far it is, but if we wouldn't do any other breaks after this we would be there in about seven hours." Clem answers his question he nods and ends his meal. 

"We can go?" Duke asks Clem nods. Both of them stand up and start cleaning camp up trying to leave no signs of them being there. After making sure that there are no trails Clem heads outside of the barn, Duke follows her and they start to head to bandits camp again. "Let's make those breaks not that often, we'll be there faster." Duke says and Clem agrees, she would lie if she'd say she's not worried, she's good at hiding her emotions from people so that made Duke not see this but she's worried that bandits could kill their prisoners by now, and if they did Clem won't forgive herself, it was her job now and when she was in the metro. 

The day got agonizingly long they had at least three encounters with different kinds of mutants which made both Duke and Clem use one magazine of ammo, but they were close now, not entire ten minutes away from the camp yet both Clem and Duke are calm, not scared of the encounter with bandits, the sun is setting, shortly it'll be completely dark. "We wait for some time, we try to see if they changed the place in which prisoners are, we want to get them out first, then clear the camp. 

"Okay." He agrees quickly, they are in woods which makes them almost unnoticeable for bandits, Clem takes out binoculars and looks at the place in which she saw the prisoners last time, it's a building that looks like it got burned but most of it is in good shape, she looks at the building and sees that blonde girl kneeling next to a red-head with long hair. 

"I know where prisoners are. We wait for the sun to set." Clem says. 

After waiting about fifteen minutes it is dark, Clem and Duke are starting to enter bandits camp that is almost unprotected, they must be sure that there's no one here that would be any kind of threat. "Okay, you will cover me, if I get noticed then you can get rid of whoever spotted me, but don't kill anyone unless you have to." Clem commands, Duke nods and gets a tighter grip on his rifle. 

The whole camp looks like a junkyard, broken vehicles all over the place making sneaking even easier, Clem leans out from behind a broken vehicle and hears shouting then a bandit drags the red-head by her hair, some other girl screaming, begging to not take her. Clem locates where the bandit and the girl, by the look on bandit's face Clem knows that he wants to hurt the girl. Clem gets closer to the bandit, she hears muffled cries but bandit didn't do anything to the girl. Yet. If Clem would jump over the broken car she's hiding behind she could easily kill the bandit and she does just that but she goes around the car not jump over it, when she gets close enough she pulls her knife out of the sheath and stab the bandit in the side of his neck, her other hand on his mouth so no one will hear him chocking. When the bandit is dead she looks at the girl, she's quietly sobbing, Clem puts the knife back in the sheath and places her hand on the girl's shoulder. 

"You're alright?" Clem asks quietly, the girl looks at her with a scared look, but she nods a little. "Okay, I need you to tell me if there are any more bandits in the building you were just in, and if there are, how many." Clem asks again, girl takes a deep breath in. 

"Three." She answers, Clem nods. 

"Duke, come here." Clem says through radio, Duke appears not long after. 

"What is it?" He asks they all are crouching. 

"Help me with the body, you stay where the body is." Clem says to the girl she nods, then Duke and Clementine are dragging the body behind the car, the girl follows them. 

"Duke we're going to clear out the building with prisoners, there's three more of them, we do it silently." Clem commands Duke nods, girl sits on the ground and starts to hug her legs. "We'll come back for you, don't worry." Clem promises, she nods. 

Clem and Duke are hiding right next to the door that leads to the building with prisoners, Clem looks at Duke and nods signaling him to open the door when he does Clem rushes inside and not wasting even a second she shots one bandit in the head before any of them can even think of it, she quickly aims at the other two, they stand next to each other and she shoots at them multiple times and it kills them both but one of them managed to shot he missed but someone must have heard it. 

"Well someone heard us." Duke says, he has the girl with him, Clem rushes to the door and leans outside and sees that three of the bandits are closing in, Clem hides back in the building. 

"Is everything alright in there?!" One of them shouts they all hear that one of them pulled a charging handle, Clem looks at Duke, he knows what she means. 

"Yeah! One of them tried to fight, he regretted it, it's alright!" Duke shouts back, impersonating a bandit. 

"You need help?!" Another one asked. 

"No! We'll manage!" Duke shouts, they say something that Clem didn't understand. 

"Okay!" They shout again, Clem sighs with relief and leans out just a little to see if they're actually going back and they are. 

"It was close..." Clem whispers to Duke, he nods in agreement. 

"Let's release them." Clem says to Duke, both of the start to untie the prisoners and luckily for Clementine she can release that blonde girl, she hides her smile and helps her get on her feet. 

"Why you helped us?" She asks, Clem looks at her, she was untying next prisoner. 

"We'll talk later, we'll get you out of here, and then I and my friend will clear the camp from those bandits, don't run away, we have an offer for you." Clem commands, saying it loud enough for every prisoner to hear. 

When Duke released an auburn-haired girl she almost jumped on her feet and hugged the red-head that Clem saved earlier. "You're alright?" She whispers. 

"Yeah, she saved me." Red-head answers and points at Clem. 

"Save it. You can thank us after we get you out of here." Clem says before anyone can say anything more. 

After untying everyone some of the prisoners went to a corner in which bandits left their stuff, which was a couple of backpacks, two bows, table leg, and handmade arrows. "Can we get the hell out of here?" A dark-skinned boy asks, Clem nods and leads the small group out of the camp, it was easy since the bandits are lazy as hell and don't patrol around they just sit around a campfire, laughing and drinking. 

When they're where Clem and Duke waited earlier Clem tells them to wait here, she and Duke head back to camp and since they're heading to the other part of the junkyard they see something they didn't saw earlier, a pile of dead bodies without any clothes, all of them are covered in blood, Clem clenches her jaw at the sight. "You couldn't do anything." Duke says from behind Clem, she sighs and nods. 

"I know. But I can make them pay." She says, the pile is only women and children and a couple of men, she still doesn't lose her focus, she knows why she's here. 

They hide in the shadows of one of the trucks and they see perfectly the last six of the bandits, they only wait for the right time, bandits don't even keep their weapons close, so basically every time is perfect to attack them and Clem uses that. "Now." She whispers to Duke, both of them emerge from shadows and start shooting at the bandits and as Clem predicted none of them even managed to get to their weapon. 

"If I should be honest, this went better than I expected." Duke admits, Clem nods, she thought it all will go down when they killed bandits in that building. 

"Good job. Let's search the bodies and get back." Clem says Duke agrees, there wasn't much on the bodies, just some bullets, but they also unloaded their rifles and pistols and now they have more ammo than when they left the village also they took two rifles that looked useable. When Clem and Duke get back, they saw that people they rescued didn't run away. 

Clem and Duke get back, the people they rescued didn't run away. "You said you have an offer for us? What is it?" The blonde girl asks, Clem takes down her hood. 

"I was here some time ago, saw you and I planned on going here alone, well a person which leads a village where I live found about my plans, and told me to get you all there, not on the same conditions in which you were here, you would all get houses and some safety, and that's my offer, you can go with us, but don't have to." Clem offers, blonde nods, turns back and asks everyone what they think about that. 

Only one person didn't want to go because 'they might be dangerous' Clementine said that if they'd want to kill them they'd be already dead and that was enough. 

"I guess we're going with you, but if we won't like it there we can go back, right?" She asks Clem nods, and just now she got a closer look at the girl and she is looking exactly the same as the one she saw in Novosibirsk. 

They started to walk to the last camp in which Clem and Duke were before getting to bandits camp, it's about four kilometers from the camp, Clem wants to use that occasion to find out more about the people she rescued. After they reached the camp it didn't take long to get the fire going, everyone was sitting around the campfire, Duke was sitting on Clem's left and Violet sat on Clem's right. "I have a great idea, you all introduce yourself." Clem says with sarcasm in her voice, and they did as she told them, there's Sophie red-head that almost got raped, Minerva Sohpie's twin but with a shaved side of her head, Brody that auburn-haired girl which hugged Sophie when she found out she's alive, Louis boy with dark skin and dreads, Marlon guy with a haircut which looked like a dead cat, Mitch a guy with brown hair, Ruby another red-head, Aasim he looked like he wasn't from around here as well as Louis, and there's Omar he has dark skin and black hair and Violet the blonde that Clem saw. 

"We done our part, maybe you could introduce yourself too?" Marlon says with venom in his voice, Clem ignores this but she introduces herself and Duke does the same. 

Clem reaches for her backpack and hands it to Violet. "There's food inside, take some if you're hungry and pass it further, but don't eat all of it, we have almost a day of walking ahead of us." She says, Violet nods and pulls out some piece of dried meat and passes it to Louis. 

"So tell me, Violet, why did you decide to come with us? As for weapons you all only have two bows and a leg from a chair, I and Duke have fully automatic rifles, we could kill you all in a matter of seconds." Clem asks trying not to sound threatening, Violet takes a bite from the piece of meat before answering. 

"You two don't look like someone who'd kill innocent people, and if you would we don't have much to lose, those bandits attacked the place we were living in and burned it to ground and if this village you're talking about is real... It's worth to at least try." Violet answers her question, even her voice is the same as the one she had in Novosibirsk. 

"Well, we won't kill any of you, we have people, reinforced fences, a gate, weapons, we can protect that place and with luck we'll be able to gather even more people than we have now." Clem says to her, everyone else is too busy with talking with each other. "You're their leader I guess?" Clem asks, Violet nods a little. 

"Some time ago it was Marlon after we found out he tried to sell the twins to those bandits we decided he can stay but not as a leader, no one else stood up and most of them don't see me as their leader, Mitch, and Marlon mostly." Violet admits, Clem knows that feeling it wasn't the same but some people after she and Artyom became Rangers didn't think they did enough to become one, by now they proved them wrong. 

"Thanks for saving us all, we won't be able to repay you but if this place you talked about is that good and we'll stay there, you can count on us." Violet promises Clem smiles and nods. 

They rested for some time and after everyone ate Clem told them to cover any tracks and they can go, not long after they were walking again, it was going to be a long road but whenever Violet is around Clem feels like time is going a little bit faster, too fast for her liking as she wants to spend as much time with blonde as possible. 

They're already about half way back to the village, breaks were more often because people Clem and Duke rescued weren't used to walking so long but most of the way Clem talked with Violet or Duke, of course, she talked to the others and Brody almost every time thanked Clem for saving Sophie. 

"They really left all of you?" Clem asks with disbelief and Violet nods. 

"Yeah, fucking assholes, they left kids all by themselves, only nurse, Ms. Martin stayed but she... You know." Violet answers her question, she was telling Clem about teachers from school she was in, the school that bandits burned, they survived there for such long time, some of the older kids took care of them for some time to the point where they were old enough to take care of themselves but after that, they left too and to think Violet and the rest were there almost since they were born. 

"I know that feeling, my parents left me in middle of nowhere so they could run away, mutants almost got me... But someone helped me, I don't even remember who it was." Clem lies just a little bit, she'd die if not Dark One but some time after Rangers appeared and took her, Dark One disappeared right before them. 

"Damn... I didn't even know my parents, all of us got sent to this school not long after birth, it was known from taking care of newborns that parents didn't want." Violet admits. Clem wants to say something but she hears something from woods that definitely isn't human. 

"Duke, you heard it too?" Clem asks just to be sure when he nods Clem doesn't wait, she grabs her rifle, Duke does the same, Violet and Aasim grab their bows and an arrow, Louis grabs his chair leg tighter. "Form a circle." Clem commands, Duke nods and the rest tries to their best to do what Clem said since they don't know what she means, they formed a circle around the rest, they don't have any kind of weapons. 

A couple of seconds later all of them hear a howl of watchers. "Get ready." Clem says as she hears many footsteps light and quick coming towards them. When first of them appears Clem starts shooting at it and it dies, right after it three more appear from woods, Violet takes one out, Clem manages to shoot two, Duke and Louis covers the other side. And then they hear even more howling. 

"Oh for fuck's sake." Violet mutters under her breath in English and Clem hears that it does surprise her just a little but she's far more concerned about mutants that are trying to kill them. Clem looks a little bit to her right and sees that three more of those things are charging at them, she starts shooting at them leaving Violet to cover her left, it took her good five seconds to kill three watchers but she managed then she hears Violet scream from behind her. "Get the fuck off me!" Clem turns to Violet quickly and sees that watcher pinned her down to the ground, she barely manages to hold him back to stop it from eating her, Clem not wasting much time pulls out a knife and starts stabbing mutant in the head. 

After mutant is dead Clem pushes it corpse from Violet and offers her hand. "You alright?" She asks, Violet nods her breathing is quickened and unstable. 

Before she can help Violet up someone from the group shouts. "Behind you!" Clem quickly turns back, knife still in her hand, watcher jumps at her but when it's still in the air she stabs him right in the eye the corpse landing right on Clem but from what she hears and sees it was last one. 

Clem pushes watcher's corpse from herself and slowly stands up, Violet is almost up. "Duke, everything fine?" Clem asks she's still cautious, she holds her rifle it's stock on placed on her shoulder. 

"Clear, you?" He asks back, Clem focuses on woods in front of her trying to see or hear and signs of mutants but she doesn't see nor hear anything. 

"Clear." She takes a deep breath and releases it with relief, she lets her rifle hang from her back again. 

"Good job everyone." She says loud enough for everybody to hear her. 

They stood there for a couple of minutes more just to be sure but nothing happened so they started to walk again. "You saved me twice in a not entire day and you seemed like you weren't scared of those things, and I'm actually curious if you're not scared or you just don't show it." Violet says Clem smiles at her. 

"I'll tell you more after we get back, but I can tell you that I and Duke are part of a group and members of them are most brave people, best fighters that were trained by a former leader." Clem explains it just a little, she will tell her more after she's sure they're safe. "And we almost can't be scared as far as I know there's only one thing that scared us but it was a couple of years ago before I even dreamed of joining that group." 

Violet just nods at her explanation and before they could start talking again Duke approached them. "Clem, can we talk for a second?" He tries to sound serious but Clem knows it's not important but she agrees nonetheless. 

"What is it?" Clem asks after Duke dragged her far enough for no one to hear them, she looks back and sees Violet talking to Louis. 

"Is this why you wanted to go here alone? To spend some time with that girl without anyone bothering you?" Duke teases Clem rolls her eyes but right now he is kind of right, not only Violet intrigues Clem but their whole group, some of them born before the bombs some after, they survived up here, of course, with help of adults but a couple of years later adults left them to fend for themselves, and Marlon did his best to keep them save but many people died but he tried to sell someone from his group and he won't get away with an excuse that he 'tried to protect the rest'. 

"Maybe. But I'm sure that if I'd take Artyom or Stepan with me they wouldn't bother me." Clem retorts with sarcasm, Duke laughs. 

"Yeah, sure. Don't you remember what Artyom was doing when you told us you're lesbian?" Duke asks and Clem is confused, she doesn't remember telling them that even if it is true. 

"I did tell you that?" 

"You were drunk as hell but only me, Artyom and Anna knows, the rest wasn't there, it was still in the metro." Duke explains and Clem nods, now she understands but she also doesn't know what Artyom was doing. 

"What Artyom was doing?" Clem asks. 

"He was looking at every girl's hands that talked to you or even those that were just standing next to you." Duke says trying not to laugh, he finds it funny when Clem finds it weird, Artyom was always protective of her, since he met her. 

"And here I was surprised why every girl was almost scared of talking to me." Clem mutters making Duke finally laugh. 

"Don't worry, you'll find a girl sooner or later." Duke tries to say while he still laughs. 

"Really fucking funny. Wait. Did he tell Lee or Carley?" Clem asks and that makes Duke stop laughing as he thinks about her question, she isn't sure how they would react if they found out. 

"As far as I'm aware, he didn't. But I'm not sure, so you'll have to ask him." Duke says and Clem nods, Duke sometimes can get on her nerve but he's a good person and a good friend yet some people back in the metro thought that he's stupid because he always volunteered for a mission, no matter what it was he was always ready, but everyone in the village knows that he was doing that to test his limits, and push himself to said limits. 

She talked with Duke for some time more, it was mostly complaining how tired they are but not long after she slowed down her pace to meet Violet's and Louis's. "Here's our hero." Louis says with a grin. 

"It's my job." Clem mutters out, it is true, she was mostly dealing with bandits back in the metro, but of course, there was something else, was it checking what is happening on some station that no one didn't hear from for some time or helping another station with mutants. 

"Helping people that got captured by bandits or killing bandits?" Aasim asks Clem didn't even notice him. 

"Honestly? Both." Clem says without thinking how it sounds. 

"So we're dealing with professional killer? Great choice in going to where she lives Violet." Aasim complains Clem doesn't say anything as she knows that all of them are tired. 

"Come on babe. It's not like someone else would help us and besides we all saw how she fights, if she would want us dead we would be already dead." Louis says and puts his arm around Aasim's shoulders Clem watches with amusement she thinks that Aasim will push Louis off but instead he gets closer to Louis. 

"I'm sorry. I'm just tired." Aasim apologizes Clem accepts his apologies. 

"Everyone is. I'm barely standing on my feet." Clem says with a light smile, but it is true, almost two days of walking, of course, there were brakes but they always seemed to be too short. 

"Do you think we'll walking for much longer?" Violet asks and Clem nods at her question. 

"If we will make brakes less often we should be there in the evening, right in time for some hot meal and going to sleep." Clem answers and she hears Louis whine at the mention of a hot meal. 

"In the evening?" Aasim asks as he didn't hear Clem properly. 

"Yep." Clem answers. 

"Let's talk about something. Is there something unusual about this village from others?" Louis asks trying to change the topic from complaining. 

"Yes. Everything in there is in almost perfect shape as if bombs didn't reach that place. And we also found a piano." Clem answers his question and she sees that his eyes lit up. 

"I call dibs on that house." Louis quickly says and she hears Violet sigh in annoyance. 

"Now we'll hear piano all the time." Violet mutters and Louis laughs. 

"You're damn right." Louis retorts right back in English and it didn't go unnoticed by Clem, she isn't sure if they think that she can't talk in English, she knows both Russian and English, Lee insisted on teaching Clem both languages and now he does the same with AJ. 

"So I guess you can play?" Clem asks Louis and he nods. 

"Ha. Good joke." Violet laughs at him and he rolls his eyes. 

"And you Clem? You can play on something?" Louis asks ignoring Violet and Clem nods. 

"Yeah, on guitar but I wouldn't say I'm good." Clem says. 

"Cool. I always wanted to learn." Violet says Louis raises his brow at her words. 

"I can teach you." Clem offers, she doesn't look on Violet but Louis does and he can swear he saw Violet's cheek become a little bit redder. 

"Sure." She agrees, Louis chuckles and shakes his head. 

"You're both delusional." He says and slows down his pace, he and Aasim are now walking behind Clem and Violet with the rest of the group. 

Clem started to talk with Violet and the time again started to run faster she didn't even know when the sun started to set and when they reached the barn she got attacked in by nosalis. While they were walking Clem asked everyone if they want to make breaks less often so they'll be faster in the village everyone agreed but she wants to take a break in that barn again, it should be safe. "Duke, we're checking that barn again, the rest stay out here, we'll tell you when you can get in." Clem commands, they agree. 

It took not even entire two minutes for Duke and Clem to check the barn, as Clem predicted it was safe so she called for everyone and soon everyone was sitting around a campfire, talking, joking and laughing. Clem takes a bite out of bread she shared with Violet, they tore it in half when no one was looking and shared. "Is it far? Your village I mean?" Sophie asks Duke and Clem. 

"A couple of hours more of walking." Duke answers the question, Sophie nods even if there are some whines from other people around the campfire. 

"Come on, we're walking for an almost the whole day, we can do another couple of hours." Clem encourages trying not to sound tired and she manages to do that, but she has to hold herself from yawning. 

"I mean, she is right, but some of us are already asleep." Louis jokes and points at Brody, she's sleeping on Sophie's shoulder. 

"I can wake her up." Sophie offers. 

"Yeah do that, and the rest think about that question, do you want to sleep on the ground or in comfortable beds?" Clem says with a smirk, she wants to sleep on a bed today. 

After a couple of minutes Brody was somewhat awake, she wasn't sleeping but she was still sleepy, Clem asked the same question as earlier and everyone wanted to sleep in a bed so Clem told them to get up and again make sure they didn't leave any trails behind and after that they again started to walk. 

It was another couple of hours of walking and now even talking with Violet didn't make Clem feel that time was going faster, it was going agonizingly slow but when she saw gates of the village she almost jumped in joy. "It's here." Clem said to Violet, she was walking right next to her, her eyes lit up when she heard it, she passed the information to the others, it was almost completely dark, so Clem took a look on her watch and it was it showed time 20:40. "If we hurry maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to get something to eat." Clem says louder so everybody will hear her, the food that Katya didn't run out but it was only bread and one piece of meat that Clem was supposed to eat. 

"You up for a race?" Duke asks Clementine, she was surprised when she heard his voice as she didn't even hear him approach her, she looks at the gates it's about two hundred meters from where they stand. 

"Sure, but you're going to lose." Clem states with a smirk, she's the fastest from all the Sparta Order, the only person that could try to compete with Clem in running would be Anna she's just a little bit slower than Clem, Anna was considered the fastest but Clem was once assigned with her on a mission before Chan told them about the last Dark One, at least they thought it was the last one, on that mission both Clem and Anna had to run and Clem was faster than Anna. "Count down for us?" Clem asks Violet, she agrees, Violet found it amazing that both Clem and Duke still had energy for a race and they were walking longer than Violet and her group. 

"Three." Violet starts, Clem and Duke are standing next to each other looking in the direction of the gate both of them ready to run as fast as they can. 

"Two." Violet continues, both Clem and Duke took the position they found the best to start running. 

"One!" Violet says louder, Clem and Duke start to run to the gate with all of their energy, Clem easily overtakes Duke and leaves him behind he tries from all his strength but he can't catch up to Clem and she's still increasing the distance between them. Clem reached the gate in about fifteen seconds while Duke reached it a couple of seconds later, he was breathing heavily at least heavier than Clementine. 

"Told you." Clem breathes out and Duke nods while still trying to catch his breath. 

The rest appear a not entire minute later some of them have an amazed look on their faces. "Clementine, I need to know, how the hell do you run so fast?" Minnie asks, Clem shrugs she isn't sure herself. 

"I don't know." Clem says, she's surprised that no one opened the gates yet."Is someone coming or not?!" Clem screams so that someone inside the village will hear them, not long after Artyom, Idiot, and Stepan start walking down the road in the village. 

"Oh, jumping over the gate now is too hard?" Artyom asks with a grin and he sees Clem shaking her head. 

"Nope, but I don't vouch that the rest could do it too." Clem retorts, Artyom shakes his head with a chuckle and helps Stepan open the gate, everyone walks inside so Stepan and Artyom can close the gate again. 

"Wow, you're back without any wounds, looks like Alyosha lost a bet." Stepan says with a surprised voice. 

"I know, I'm surprised too." Clem says, she takes her backpack off and takes one rifle out, Duke does the same when he sees Clem. 

"Idiot, could you give them to Tokarev? He'll take care of them so they'll be usable again." Clem asks Idiot as he lives closest to Tokarev, he grabs the rifles and nods. 

"Idiot because he's stupid?" Sophie asks after Idiot walked away, the question is for Clem but Stepan chuckles. 

"He's actually the smartest in our little group." Stepan answers her question and she nods. 

"Is there anything left to eat from today?" Clem asks Artyom, he nods. 

"Yeah, it should be enough for everyone, it's still warm." He replies Clem nods. 

"Great. Stepan, go take everybody to where we eat and if you could give them something to eat, I need to talk with Artyom and Anna also I need to change from this." Clem states, she wants to take her suit off and wear something more comfortable. "So I'll go and change, Artyom go and take Anna and meet me at my house." Clem more asks then commands, Artyom nods and walks off, Clem does the same in the direction of her house. 

When Clem gets inside of her house and closes the door she takes a deep breath in and starts to walk to doors that lead to her bedroom which is bigger than the room she lived back at VDNH, king-sized bed a wardrobe in which she keeps all of her clothes and she has a lot more than when she was in the metro as they found many clothes in the village and they didn't even search a quarter of the village because they didn't find the time, Clem looks at the bed and at how comfortable it looks right now but she fights the urge to lie in it, she places her rifle against a wall and starts to take off her Sparta suit and backpack leaving her only in her underwear she quickly looks through her wardrobe and takes out an oversized tank top and shorts, it's too hot to wear anything else. 

She takes the bag with food out of her backpack and she hears a knock on the entry door. "Come in!" She shouts probably to Artyom and Anna. Clem walks to her living room and sees that Artyom and Anna are sitting on her couch. 

"You wanted to talk to us?" Artyom asks, Clem wants to talk about that night she told Artyom and Anna that she's lesbian. 

"Back in the metro, did I tell you anything that is important?" Clem asks with a smirk both Anna and Artyom think about that question, but they both shake their head. 

"So, I talked with Duke and apparently when I was drunk I told him, and you two that I'm lesbian." Clem says and the realization hits them as they slowly nod. 

"Yeah, you told us while you were drunk, I thought you remember that? And why is it important?" Anna asks and Clem points at Artyom. 

"Duke told me that Artyom was looking at hands of any girl that stood next to me also I want to know if you told Lee or Carley?" Clem explains and Artyom doesn't say anything and Anna looks at him with a surprised look. 

"Uh. I didn't tell anyone. And I admit that I did what you told." Artyom admits with embarrassed voice and Clem waves it off. 

"Don't worry. I didn't notice and also I wasn't interested in anyone back in the metro." Clem says and he sighs with relief and Anna giggles at the stress her husband was just in. 

"Then why did you even want to talk about this?" Artyom asks with a light smile and she smirks. 

"I wanted to see your reaction really. But if I'll get drunk again and I'll tell you something important I won't remember, tell me." Clem commands and both of them nod. 

They all walk out as Clem wants to eat something, Artyom and Anna want to meet people Clem brought. The closer they got the louder speaking got as well as laughter when they reached a whole complex of benches and tables where every time someone eats, unless it's winter, Clem sees that there's one bowl full but no one eats from it, and it is next to Violet. "Clem, this is for you." Alyosha says and points at the bowl, he looks at Clem weirdly. 

"Alyosha, if you're looking for wounds, you won't find any, Duke isn't hurt either." Clem says as she sits down and he stops looking at her that way and he curses under his nose. "What did you bet?" Clem asks again and he doesn't answer but tosses a pack of cigarettes to Damir. 

"Wow, you getting wounded is worth a pack of cigarettes." Ruby says with disgust and Clem smiles. 

"You'll get used to it. My life was once worth, again because of a bet, three magazines for Kalash." Clem says, she still remembers that one merchant from Polis his caravan was attacked by bandits, he and one of his employees saw Clem, she was on her way to Polis but they told her about the bandits and she took care of them, and after she came back to the merchant and told him it's done he gave his employee three magazines of ammo as she found out they had a bet if she'll come back. 

"It was that merchant from Polis, right?" Damir asks as she told him the story and Clem nods. 

"Polis? I never heard of anything called like that." Aasim says and Clem looks at him then at Artyom asking him if she can tell from where they are and he nods. 

"I assume you heard of Moscow?" When everybody nods or say 'yes' Clem continues. "So after the bombs fall, people went to the metro under the city, I was born around two years after the bombs and we were still in metro, there's a trading alliance, it's called The Commonwealth of the Stations of the Ring Line or Hanseatic League but everyone calls it Hanza, they built a broadcast jammer, we didn't get any radio signal from outside the Moscow and no one didn't read signal from Moscow, they did it because they think that war still continues but we know it's bullshit, the goverment was supposed to be in the mountains Yamantau and they weren't exactly sane, they were fucking cannibals, we got out without any loses but it was hell, Artyom caught only once a signal from outside Moscow and tried to catch it again, he failed and when he and Anna were trying again they found a working train going to Hanza's outpost, not long after they found the jammer and by an accident destroyed it, they saw all the signals, after twenty years of living underground we found out that there's life outside the Moscow that whole world is alive if we exclude Katya, Nastya, Krest, and Kirill, everyone is or was a part of Sparta Order that group I was talking about." Clem tells how they found out that there's life outside Moscow and everyone from Violet's group is speechless. 

"So, people in this whole metro didn't let anyone outside it because they thought that war still continues?" Violet was the first to find her voice and Clem shakes her head. 

"No, there are people that go outside the metro, they're called Ranger and they look for supplies, ammo, everything, they were treated with respect but they never went outside Moscow, there are more people that are going outside the metro but they don't look for anything." Clem explains and Violet nods. 

"That's fucked up." Minnie states, Clem nods, and Sam laughs sarcastically. 

"No shit." Sam says after his laugh. 

"When did you get out of Moscow?" Brody asks. 

"Over a year ago. We stole Hanza's train, I was there, Artyom, and Yermak, my dad and the rest that is in Sparta Order was with him when they found out it was me and Artyom that they caught they got Hanza's people outside the train and started to ride outside the Moscow but they had another train far better armored than ours, Artyom and Clem blew it up." Anna says and Clem can almost feel Violet's smirk. 

"You lead an interesting life." Violet says and Clem shrugs. 

"No, I live a stupidly dangerous life." Clem retorts and she can hear Duke snort. 

"Yeah sure, as if launching a bombs at the age of fifteen isn't interesting." Duke argues and Clem shakes her head. 

"I wasn't the only one that did it." Clem argues back, she isn't proud of what she did. 

"Well, you and Artyom saw how it exploded." Stepan says and Clem sighs. 

Clem ends her meal as the rest is talking again, Clem and Artyom managed to convince them to leave the topic of what they did. "Might be stupid to ask, but how old are you?" Violet asks in a whisper, Idiot kept track of everyone's birthday along with the date. 

"Eighteen." Clem answers shortly and looks at Violet and sees the surprise in her eyes. 

"You're younger than me and you probably did more than should have." Violet states and Clem smirks. 

"You're a therapist?" Clem asks still keeping smirk on her face. 

"No. But I can tell, especially if you launch a goddamned bomb at the age of fifteen." Violet says and she is right, but Clem won't show it, she doesn't want to look weak. 

"You don't have to worry about me." Clem assures and Violet nods without being convinced. 

Clem yawns and suddenly reminds herself how tired she is, she gets up and says goodbye to everyone and walks off to her home, it isn't even five minutes before she's laying on her bed asleep. 

A couple of days passed and about two days after bringing Violet's group to the village Alyosha came running to Clem telling her he heard from Olga on radio, he said that the dam had finally collapsed and she didn't manage to convince many people, at least in her opinion, she managed to convince forty people but all of them are best warriors, doctors, hunters, and 'engineers' and children as she told them, Artyom's group were thinking if they all will fit in Aurora and yes they will if they'll sleep on the floor of the locomotive and passenger car they will fit, so right now Clem, Alyosha, Anna, Idiot, and Yermak are in Aurora driving to the place which Olga said, Clem tried to convince Artyom to take someone from Violet's group with them too but he said that they shouldn't be sending that many people already Clem secretly wished she could get Violet with her Clem trained some of the people in some basic combat and Violet is the one to learn quickest and she wanted Violet to go with her because she liked talking to her, time, even after a couple of days talking to blonde, still seemed to be passing a lot quicker which would be good right now as it's a two of days of ride, they should be there in a day but they don't know what will happen along the way. "What I'd give for going hunting." Alyosha says out loud and Clem sighs at this, Anna is withYermak in the locomotive and Idiot is shoveling coal to the furnace. 

"I know. I'd prefer to do anything, back when everyone was here you had what to talk about or something, but now? I should bring some books." Clem complains she has quite a large collection of books, sure they aren't in a great state but all of them are readable. "You think Olga is still in that place?" Clem asks, and Alyosha shrugs. 

"She told me that if they'll have to run somewhere they'll leave a note which will tell us where they are." Alyosha answers and Clem nods more to herself than to him she closes her eyes and tries to fall asleep but it's just impossible, no matter how much she tries she can't fall asleep. 

A couple of minutes later Anna comes to the passenger car and sits next to laying Clem. "When we'll be there?" Clem asks, her eyes still closed. 

"Yermak says that if we won't have to stop we should be there in the morning, but it's still some walking to that camp of theirs." Anna answers her question, Clem nods. 

"Idiot, gave me something." Anna says and pulls out a pack of cards from her pocket and throws it on Clem's stomach making her jump up, sit and start glaring at Anna but she stopped when she saw the cards she quickly started to count them and there were complete. 

"We're playing poker." Clem states both Alyosha and Anna agree. "But the loser has to answer a question from the person that won." They agree again. 

After first round Clem lost and Anna won. "How much you hated me after all the things I said to you and Artom while trying to catch that little Dark One?" Anna asks and Clem smirks, she hated her more than she should. 

"A lot, I'll tell you that much." Clem says and Anna nods. 

A couple of rounds later and knowing something more about Alyosha and Anna but not much and now she lost again, but Alyosha won. "About that Violet girl." Clem looks at him what he wants to ask. "Do you like her? As in more than just a friend." Alyosha asks and that question surprises Clem, she wasn't sure herself, she felt something more than just friendship but she isn't sure if she should feel that because she knows Violet for not than long not even an entire week but she still feels something more. 

"You don't have to answer that." Anna assures and Clem shakes her head at Anna's words. 

"I do like her." Clem quickly answers and she keeps her gaze on the table, she can feel surprised looks from both Alyosha and Anna. 

"Well. You're good at hiding it, unlike Violet." Anna says and Clem snorts as if she could believe that Violet likes her back. 

"No Anna is right, Violet was looking around the night after she and the rest came to the village, we let you and Duke sleep longer, whenever there was a sound of opening and closing door from the direction of your house she would look there with this small hope in her eyes and when it wasn't you, she would look disappointed but when you woke up she had a smile plastered on her face, the same thing happened when you were hunting or on a patrol, she was looking around trying to find you but when we told her you're not in the village she was even more disappointed yet whenever you were back she got the same exact smile on her face." Alyosha supports Anna's words and Clem sighs. 

"Alyosha, you were too excited to go for Olga to even notice anything that was happening around you." Clem states and he agrees. 

"Yes, but who said I'm the one who noticed it? Anna saw it, Artyom saw it, as well as Stepan, Idiot, Katya, and Duke." Alyosha retorts and Clem sighs again, she doesn't know what to believe now. 

"What the hell I'm going to do?" Clementine mutters to herself, not to Anna or Alyosha. 

"Tell her. Or you're both going to suffer because she won't tell you." Alyosha states and he is right, Violet isn't kind of person that will talk about her feeling much. 

"I need to think about it. It's getting late, I'll try to sleep." Clem says and stands up from the couch and goes to her room in the car, she hears Anna saying her goodnight, but she didn't answer she actually wants to sleep with the hope that she'll think of what to do about her feelings towards Violet. 

Clementine opens her eyes, she expected to wake up in the same room she fallen asleep in but when her eyes open she sees that she's in a tunnel of the metro, she at least thinks because she can't see anything even if she has her headlamp but its light isn't enough for the dark tunnel, she's alone she doesn't hear anything, she has her Sparta suit on her as well as Shambler she usually doesn't use that shotgun, she doesn't use shotguns in general, but it's effective in tight tunnels of the metro. 

When she hears a scream from behind her she quickly presses the stock of the shotgun to her shoulder and turns back, she sees that lurkers are eating something and it's a person that's still alive, Clem doesn't wait and starts shooting at the lurkers while being careful not to shot the person laying on the rails, when the lurkers are dead she gets closer to the person and when she sees a familiar vest from far she rushes to the person and sees that it's Violet, she's choking on her own blood and Clem doesn't know what to do, she doesn't have anything that could help Violet and she doesn't know where she is, from what she knows she might go to Fourth Reich's station and it won't end well if she will. "It's all you fault." Clem hears Violet mutter out when she noticed the brunette leaving latterly confused. 

"What?" She asks in confusion but when she looks at Violet again she sees that she doesn't breath, she feels a lump in her throat and tears welling in her eyes but none will fall, she let's go of her shotgun and lets it hang of her back, she leans down to pick up Violet's body, she wants to carry her to closes station and give her a some sort of funeral or something closest to it but when she was just picking her up she heard squeking of rats she turns to the source of sound and sees whole horde of rats she looks at Violet's body and she knows she won't be able to run away if she'll try and take her body so she starts running as fast as she can in opposite direction from which rats are coming from but they're catching up on her, she looks back and one of the practiclly jumps at her face and when it makes contact with her face she's in another place in the metro, she recognizes the station she's on now, it's VDNH but all the people have blurred faces and she can't see who's is who but she starts to walk to the room in which she, Lee, Carley, and AJ lived in she walks in and sees all of her family all mangled up on the ground but now they weren't breathing she feels that lump in her throat as well as tears welling up in her eyes but, again, they won't fall just when she was going to walk out and ask what happened Lee's, Carley's and AJ's heads look start to look at her and all three of them say. "It's your fault." Clem shakes her head and wants to walk out and when she does she starts to hear shots and screams just as she looks in the direction of all the shooting another one rings through the station and she again finds herself somewhere else. 

She sees the gates to the village all opened up, they shouldn't be she runs to the center of the village and sees everyone that lives there alive but when they see her they say. "It's all your fault." As they say it Clem sees a huge shadow from behind her she looks behind her and sees a huge wave from the sea falling down on the village and she doesn't even try to run away she just stands there as all of the people behind her repeat. "It's all your fault." When the wave falls down on the village she hears someone yell her name but she can barely hear it when it repeats she hears as it was right next to her. 

"Clem!" Clem jolts up from her bed in the passenger car and looks around, she's whole in a cold sweat and her heart is beating incredibly fast, she sees that Anna was trying to wake her up. "Here." Anna hands her a bottle of water and Clem takes a couple of huge sips before looking at Anna again. 

"Thanks." Clem says and throws the bottle on the pillow. "How long you tried to wake me?" 

"About ten minutes, we heard you scream in your sleep, so I tried to wake you up, you kept repeating 'it's all your fault'." Anna answers and Clem nods then get up, she wants to get out of that train. 

"We arrived?" Clem asks when she hears that the train isn't moving and Anna nods, she walks outside her room and looks at Alyosha, Idiot, and Yermak. 

"You're alright? We heard screams." Idiot asks and Clem nods, she sits on the couch and places hands over her face. 

"I'll be fine, I just need to get out of this goddamned train." Clem says and sighs. 

"Someone has to stay here, I doubt that Yermak will be able to protect the train by himself." Anna states and Clem nods, she looks at Idiot and Anna and they already know what she wants. "We'll stay." Both of them say in union and Clem smiles. 

"Then we should get ready I guess." Alyosha says, Clem nods. Both of them get up and head to each other's rooms to get changed, it doesn't take that long and Clem's equipment is almost the same, she just got rid of the silencer on the AK for this, Alyosha is in standard Sparta suit and AK with reflex sights. She takes another sip of water before walking out of the train with Alyosha, he has a map in his hands and an X where Olga and the rest are supposed to be. "It's about five kilometers this way if we hurry we should be there in about two hours. Alyosha tells and shows Clem the map, she nods at him, hands the map back and both of them start to head in the direction Alyosha pointed. 

The way there is somewhat calm, they saw a couple of mutants of different kinds but they just avoided them, they don't have much ammo, another thing they noticed is a couple of bolts in the trees, they took them, maybe Olga's group will want them back. When they see a patrol Children of the Forest people they approach them and they don't aim at them, but just nod when they see them, apparently, they knew that they were coming. 

When they arrived in the camp Alyosha and Clem saw Olga talking to some people but she immediately stopped when she saw them and run up to them, well to Alyosha as she almost completely ignored Clementine. "You're here." She exclaims and takes Alyosha's hands in hers. 

"I promised, didn't I?" He responds with a huge smile and she nods, but they get interrupted when Clem clears her throat to get their attention. 

"I'm sorry I'm ruining the moment, but can we go? We're on a tight schedule." Clem asks, she didn't mean to sound rude but she knows that something is wrong when Olga's face is overtaken by a realization of some sort, mixed with fear. "What is it?" Clem asks again. 

"When I was convincing the other whole Children of Forest split into three groups, us the ones that wanted to live a safe life, Roman's group the biggest that wanted to find some other place to live, and the third group are mostly pirates, they argued with both me and Roman that we should attack you for everything you did, even if you didn't do anything, and that if we won't then they will. I'm not sure if they will or not but that train of yours could get some unwanted attention." Olga tells them and Clem lets out an annoyed sigh. 

"Can something go by fucking plan? Pack quickly and we need to go." Clem commands, she doesn't care if she that Olga doesn't have to listen to her but she's relieved when she agrees with her and walks away telling different small groups to pack, Clem saw some gear that looks solid and in relatively good shape, but there's a lot of it, it'll take some time to pack it all and bring it to train, and they'll have to put some of it on the roof and they also will have to get ready if pirates will attack them. It took some good half an hour to pack it all up and when they did Olga approached Alyosha and Clem, they helped how they could and some of the people there were graceful for it already. 

"Olga, I need to talk to all of them." Clem states and Olga eyes her weirdly, not knowing why. 

"Why?" Both Alyosha and Olga ask. 

"Those pirates might attack right?" Olga nods. "I need to know if they're ready to fight them if it'll come to that." Clem explains and Olga nods, she calls everyone over and soon they all formed a half-circle around Olga, Alyosha, and Clem. Clem climbs on some boxes so she's visible for everyone. "I know most of you don't know me and none of you have a reason to trust me, but I really wish you will be able to someday, yet we have to arrive to village which I and my friend lead, and people you called friends not that long ago might want to prevent us from doing it," Clem says with a loud and confident voice, she hears some word of agreement from people that stay below her. "And they will want to kill me and other people that will be on the train in which we will travel and I'm sure they won't care if they kill some of you, or they will want to kill you after you decided to go after Olga, I have to know if you're ready to fight them off?" She asks with an aggressive and sure voice, aggression is from when pirates were shooting at her when she tried to steal their boat, normally she'd just kill them, but she listened to Olga's request and just run away on the boat barely surviving it. She smiles when she hears and sees that people actually agree with her, maybe it won't be so bad after all she says that they should get ready for going back and jumps down landing next to Alyosha and Olga. 

"If they'll actually try and attack us, will you please try to persuade them to leave us alone? I don't want any blood spilled." Olga asks, Clem nods even if she doesn't like the idea, but she can try. 

"Sure. But how much of them there is?" Clem asks and Olga thinks and counts for some time. 

"About forty? There are less of them than us, but if they will want to attack us and talking to them won't work we could just use some explosives, they will have to use trucks or anything of that sort to catch up on us and it won't take much to destroy them." Olga suggests, Clem thinks about it and she has a great idea, they found and RPG and some ammo to it in an old military base. 

"Alyosha, is the RPG still on the train?" Clem asks. 

"Yes." He says and Clem sighs but with a little bit of relief in her voice now. 

"Maybe it won't be so bad after all." She mutters under her breath and a couple of minutes later everyone is ready to go and they don't wait to get moving, it will take longer than Clem thought, they have a lot of heavy equipment. 

It will take them at least twice the time in which Clem and Alyosha arrived and getting back is calm too but there was a couple of mutants that Clem and Alyosha would normally avoid to not waste any ammo, but they can't afford to lose any of the precious time, so one of the warriors put a hand on Clem's rifle when she aimed at the mutant and lowered it, she watched him aim with Helsing at the mutant and shot it straight in the head and killing it immediately, he looks at his work with a smirk and picks up the bolt from the corpse of the mutant. "If you're trying to impress someone, you're failing!" Clem says with raised voice while he picks up the bolt he turns to her and shrugs but doesn't say a word yet a smirk didn't leave his face. 

They arrived quickly, Alyosha, Idiot, and Olga's group started to pack everything whilst Clem approached Anna. "How it went?" She asks, they're both standing on the locomotive, Clem is leaning against the railing while Anna has crossed arms and watches other people. 

"Good actually. But it can change." Clem explains and can feel the worried gaze from Anna at the side of her head. 

"Why?" 

"Well, Children of Forest split into three groups, one trying to find another place to live in, the group which we have here, and the one that might try and kill us all." Clem says without really caring how it sounds. 

"Great. Do we have a plan, or we do it your way and improvise?" Anna asks and even when the situation is critical she sees that teasing grin on her face. 

"We have one. We still have that RPG in the train along with ammo, and they'll have to chase us in some sort of vehicle." Clem says wanting Anna to continue. 

"And we'll use that against them, yes?" Anna asks and Clem confirms her words she thinks about the plan for some time and nods. "It can work." 

"I know. But the thing is that Olga wants me to try and talk to them first, she doesn't want any more spilled blood." Clem informs and Anna looks at her with slight worry. 

"And I suppose you'll try? You like to avoid fighting if you can." Anna says and Clem wouldn't put it exactly like that but if she can and wants to save resources she tries to avoid fighting. 

"I'll try, I know that if it'll come to that Olga's people will fight against them but if I can prevent that, I will." Clem explains but that doesn't calm Anna down, not really. 

They were riding for over an hour now, Clem and Alyosha stayed in their suits as well as they kept their equipment close, Idiot and Anna geared up not long after as they're worried if pirates attacking them, Idiot holds both his rifle and RPG, the whole train is crowded and it won't be as easy as Clem thought it would be, she wanted to give beds for children but Olga, as well as parents, refused her offer, saying that she already does enough by giving them a place to live in, she tried to insist but they said it won't work, and they thought that maybe pirates won't attack, that they maybe didn't hear or see the train, or maybe they know they'll lose, but they were wrong, not long after five half-trucks started following them all of them packed with people. Clementine didn't wait and got up on the passenger car, there is a lot of equipment up there, most of it, but it can't be damaged much so if she has to she'll use it as cover, she even made sure she can after talking to some people. She let her AK hang in front of them and she approached the end of the car with raised hands, she's calm, and she knows it looks like it, Idiot said that if they try something then he'll blow them up, others are ready to shot at them too, Anna followed her up the car, but stayed back behind cover. "So it's true you're here?!" One of the pirates that are upfront yells to her, she nods not letting her hands down. "So you're surrendering?! Good choice!" He yells with some sort of satisfaction in his voice, but he's startled when he sees that Clem shakes her head. 

"I'm not! I raised my hand only because you'd shot me otherwise!" Clem yells back, he chuckles and looks at his people and as if they read his mind they all started to aim at her, but she doesn't even flinch which makes pirate look like an idiot as he can't even threaten a girl. "Drive away! I don't want to have and kill you all, and I will if you'll make me!" Clem shouts and he laughs as well as his friends, but the tension is high, Clem can see that pirates are itching to pull the trigger. 

"You won't!" He disagrees, Clem smirks. 

"I-" Before she can even end her sentence she's interrupted by a shot ringing she feels something in her side she looks down and sees the gunshot wound, but she didn't feel pain, she didn't even and reached for the rifle and started to shot at the pirates before she can realize it's full-on war, Idiot screamed that something isn't right with RPG but he'll fix it in no time, she slowly retreats back to cover still shooting, changing magazines if she has to and when she's changing her second one to third she feels a sharp pain in her left shoulder she looks and sees a bolt sticking out of her shoulder, she ignores the pain and continues to reload, she starts shooting and retreating again. She was about to take cover when she felt another wave of pain, but now from her thigh, she looks down and sees another bolt sticking out she tries to keep her balance but fails and falls off she grabs the railing and tries to keep on. "Clementine!" Anna yells when she sees Clem fall. Clem hears a loud noise from inside the train and explosion, she thinks that Idiot fixed the damn RPG, just as Anna was to grab Clem the railing broke and she had fallen off the train. "No!" Anna yells again when she sees it. Anna quickly runs down to the locomotive and tells Yermak to stop the train, he listens and starts to break, most of the pirates are gone, in the time when Anna was going to Yermak, Idiot shot two more times taking two more trucks, it left just one because one more crashed into the first one that Idiot took out. She got into passenger car and waited for the train to stop, she didn't say anything when Alyosha asked what happened, she was too caught up in getting to Clem. The ammo to RPG ended and there was still one more vehicle, one of the engineers from Olga's group messed around with supplies and pulled out a hand made grenade not even an entire minute after and handed it to Idiot, after waiting for some time for the fuse to burn for a second or two and threw it and he managed to get it right to cabin of the vehicle because there was nothing protecting it. 

Train stopped not long after, about half a minute or so, and Anna she started to run as fast as she possibly can, she saw more or less where Clem landed. She looks around and sees the vehicles burning but not far she hears quiet grunts, she keeps her rifle close and gets closer to the source but she lets go of her rifle when she sees Clementine laying in the grass, applying pressure to wound in her side, at least it looks like it but when Anna gets close she sees a lot of shells from Clementine's rifle around her, rifle lays right next to her but without the magazine, it lays next to the rifle there are three bodies of pirates laying in the grass, next thing that gets Anna's attention that Clem doesn't say anything, her eyes are closed and she doesn't move, Anna quickly knees next to her and gets her face right in front of Clementine's and tries to feel breathing and after a couple of seconds she feels some breathing she sighs with relief yet that doesn't change the fact that Clem is unconscious. She didn't even hear Alyosha, Idiot, and Olga run up behind her. "What the hell happened?" Idiot asks, Anna gets up and approaches Olga even if there isn't much difference between their height it looks like Anna is almost towering over Olga. 

"You have doctors with you, right?" Anna asks and Olga just nods, Anna walks away and tells Idiot to help her carry Clem back. They are quick with carrying her back and Olga immediately goes to one of the doctors and explains what is going on, a doctor without worry or panic gets what he needs and follows Idiot and Anna to Clementine's room in the car, he gets both Anna and Idiot out, telling them he needs space, they listen even if Anna had an urge to stay. 

"You were with her up there, what happened?" Alyosha asks trying not to sound worried but he fails, Anna tries to remember what happened it happened so fast she barely knows what happened. 

"She talked with them, told them to leave or they'll all die, they refused they mocked her when she said that, before she could say something more one of them shot her, she didn't seem to care, she just started to shoot at them and retreat but she was too slow and got shot in the shoulder while reloading, she endured it and continued and right before she got behind cover she got shot again in the leg, she lost her balance and fallen off the car, she grabbed the railing and I almost had her but the railing broke." Anna explains quickly and tries to calm herself down, she wishes Artyom were here, he would know what to do Clem would also know what to do, their goddamned luck that two people that are great leaders in their own ways aren't here or aren't in the state to lead. "We need to get back, Idiot go tell Yermak to start the train also tell him to drive as fast as he can, who knows how much time we have." Anna says as it's her only idea and Idiot walks off through the crowd, there are some scared faces between all of them. Anna sits where she can find a place and tries not to think about anything, sometime later the train is moving, the train is moving faster than before, Anna just hopes they'll be able to save Clementine, they can't lose anyone else. 

The hours went by, the doctor still didn't walk out, there are some muffled screams from inside the room, Olga blames herself as she's the one that asked Clem to talk to pirates, Alyosha tries his best to comfort her, Idiot and one of the people from Olga's group are by the furnace, Anna still tried to push all thoughts out but she just can't ignore the screams, no one can, kids mostly sits in one group or by their parents, almost all of them looked worried after the adrenaline wore off, as far as they know no one else in the train got hurt. Idiot came back not two minutes later and sat next to Anna. "Is it really that hard to teach someone how to operate a shovel?" Anna asks trying not to sound rude but she fails even if she doesn't mean it. 

"No, but I wanted to make sure he won't do something wrong, we can't stop, we have most of our equipment at the village, we have some bandages, something to stitch wounds up and something to clean them, sure they have much more but we have no space to actually try and looks for something that could help we'd have to stop to try and as I said, not an option." Idiot explains himself he sounds as he didn't take Anna's word to himself. Just as Anna was about to continue talking with the hope that it will take her mind of what is happening around her the doctor walks out of Clementine's room, almost everyone looks at him with hope. 

"She's alive. Bolts weren't much of a threat, but she has some broken bones from the fall and I didn't manage to take the bullet out I have no space to do so and we can't get the equipment out, I can continue my work after we get back to wherever you live." The doctor says he's still calm as if what happened isn't a threat but Anna nor anyone else sees it. 

"Can we see her?" Anna asks, the doctor agrees but tells them to be quiet, Anna, Alyosha, and Idiot go inside of the room, they see Clem laying under a blanket, her suit was taken off by Anna before she walked out as doctor asked her to do so, she didn't take a good look on Clem earlier and she does now, a small part of her face is covered in dirt, there are some cuts on it as well as on her neck probably from fall, her shoulders are lightly visible so they see the bandages over her shoulder. "We shouldn't let her talk with them alone." Anna states, her friends agreeing, they should let at least one more person with her, it wouldn't be as bad if the RPG worked from the start. 

"She looks weak as hell, I didn't saw her like this..." Alyosha starts not being sure what to say. 

"Since D6, she had it worse back then but she wasn't thrown off the train." Anna continues for him, Clem was one of the people that barely survived the battle for D6, she got directly hit by the train and somehow survived and her relentless and being stubborn allowed her to recover fully even if it did take some time. "People in the metro considered her as some kind of god, she got shot twice and still fought, got hit by a train and she still tried and survived, let's be honest, she's probably toughest ranger to ever exist." Anna admits, Artyom is probably the only person that can get close to enduring the same pain as she did, after the battle for D6 Clementine was unconscious for a couple of days, everyone was afraid she might not wake up, but when she did Artyom ran so fast for some doctor to look at her that it was incredible to watch, Clementine is truly scared of nothing and no one, Artyom told Anna that she was the last one to fall back when Miller gave that sort of command, Rangers that survived the battle were talking that she took out more Red Line's soldiers than any other Ranger. 

They stayed there for an additional couple of minutes just to be sure than walked out as they didn't think they can do much more but it helped them knowing that Clementine is alive but they aren't sure if she'll even make it to the village but they hope they will, they just can't and won't stop, no matter what. 

Fortunately for the train they didn't encounter much more trouble and were able to arrive at the village in one piece, the night wasn't one of the comfortable ones but they managed, they arrived in the late evening and before the train began to stop everyone was making ready to start heading towards the village, the place where they leave the train is well hidden and even if someone village will know and should be able to catch them before they leave, Idiot and Anna are supposed to transport Clem back to her house, they made some improvised stretchers, the doctor said he'll take the bullet out as fast as he can he said to other doctors from the group that are far younger and less experienced what he needs they just nodded. Just as the train stopped Alyosha opened the door to the passenger car, people made space for Idiot and Anna to take Clem out of the car, Anna can't focus again, her mind is occupied with thinking what she will tell Artyom and the rest, the village is about five minutes of calm walking but since Idiot, Anna, and the doctor are running they should be there in two. When they reach the gates Anna asks the doctor to hold stretchers and she climbs over the gate and opens it letting them inside. They hear some talking as well as laughter but none pay much mind to it, just as they were in front of Clementine's house they were spotted by the rest, Clem's house isn't that far from the 'courtyard' as they call it, that general place where they usually eat, all of them are scared when they see Clementine, she's still covered by a blanket but since it's quite bright they noticed the blood on it, Artyom, Violet, Louis, Duke, and Katya rushed in behind them. 

They all ask what happened when Idiot and Anna place Clem on her bed. "Is there anyone here that could help me?" Doctor asks and Katya immediately nods. 

"Yes, I was a nurse." She offers, doctor nods and looks at the rest of the people in an over-crowded room. 

"The rest get out and let only my people with equipment in." Doctor commands, they agree and go out to Clementine's living room, Anna is heavily breathing as well as Idiot, Artyom asks them again what happened, Violet just looks pale and Louis tries to cheer her up but looking at that she gets more and more pissed he's probably failing. 

After Anna caught her breath she told Artyom what happened and he shook his head in anger, but he wasn't angry at the group that was going to get Olga's group he's angry at himself. "I knew I should give you more people, I just knew but I thought 'it's enough, they all know how to take care of themselves, they'll be alright' and of course I was wrong." He says with an angry and loud voice, Duke is still speechless. 

"It's not your fault, we shouldn't let her go and talk to them alone and besides we didn't even know that those pirates will attack us if we knew we'd take more ammo as well as more men." Idiot assures Artyom nods and tries to calm himself down but he curses again. 

"If she dies, and it is possible, we're fucked. She's the best fighter we have and ever will have, she's a great strategist if we need one, she trains all of those kids." Artyom points at Louis and Violet. "We can't lose her." Artyom states everybody in the room agrees, well apart from Louis and Violet, Louis is caught up in cheering Violet up and Violet is caught up in ignoring him. 

"It's not like we can do anything right? We must wait for the doctor and Katya and hope she'll be alright." Duke says and Anna nods it's exactly what they were doing earlier in the train. 

"So what we can only do is wait?" Violet asks for confirmation, she's still pale she's also now hugging herself. 

"As much as I hate it, we have to kid." Idiot says to her and she just nods and sits at the couch she's met by a few surprised looks. 

"What? I'm not moving until I'll know if she's alive or not." Violet states with confidence in her voice they don't say anything for a while until Duke speaks up. 

"Let her stay, she already ate and we can give the rest something to eat." Duke says and they just nod and leave Violet alone in the living room, she closes her eyes and tries to control her breathing it was quickened but she managed to hide it, she hates the idea that Clementine might die, she can't watch another one of her friends get killed, she just can't, even if she wishes it was something more than friendship, Brody already asked her questions because Clem is the only person that Violet grew on that quick but Violet tried to ignore her. She gets an idea to lie down, she was training with Duke today, she wished it could be Clem again, but he wasn't so bad but his methods aren't really in her liking and she thinks that at the amount of tiredness compared to what she learned it wasn't worth it, right before she lays three men walk into the house scaring the living hell out of her as they weren't gentle with the door but she noticed some of the medical supplies so she just pointed at the door leading to the bedroom, they nodded got inside the room and not even two minutes later left the house. 

It was unusually quiet, no talking, no laughing, just silence, Violet liked it quiet at the start but after some time and getting to know most of the people in the village she much more preferred when someone was talking, there usually wasn't a moment when it was completely quiet and now nothing, Violet just hears her breathing as well as a lot of steps outside the house, she didn't know how large the group Clementine, Anna, Alyosha, and Idiot brought just that they met earlier. Violet lays down, puts an arm on her forehead and closes her eyes, as much as she wanted to be there when the doctor will be done she decides to get some sleep. 

Violet jolted up when she heard a door being open, she looks and sees a doctor with a smile on him, she looks at him for a second and then glances at the window, it's early morning, she looks quickly around and no one was waiting with her, only she was in the house waiting she looks back at the doctor with huge hope in her eyes. "She's alive, it wasn't easy as the bullet did go through but left fragments in her, I had to take out all of it but she'll be fine, she should wake up shortly." The doctor explains to her she breathes out a breath she didn't even know she was holding with relief. 

"Can I see her?" Violet asks, she believes him but she still wants to see her, she didn't even manage to look at Clementine's state when they carried her inside. 

"Yeah, but if you could make sure that there won't be more than two people at one time? I don't want her to get overwhelmed when she gets up." Doctor says, he looks very tired he wasn't sleeping two nights by now and Violet sees it. 

"Uh if you want to get your house you should find Artyom or Anna, they should be awake in a while." Violet tells him, Anna and Artyom were showing each member of Violet's group where they were living, most of them are practically just across the street from Clementine's and Artyom's house, Violet would just have to cross the road in the middle of the village to get to Clementine's house. The doctor nods and walks out, Violet gets up from the couch and heads to Clementine's bedroom. Violet feels some fear in her when she enters the room, she doesn't know in what state Clementine is, she's alive that she knows but she doesn't know much more. 

Violet looks at Clementine and sighs with relief when she sees that she's really breathing but she's very pale, it's the first time when Violet sees Clementine so vulnerable whenever she saw Clementine she saw someone who wasn't scared of anything or anyone she found out that when Clem rescued her and her group from bandits and when she saved her from a watcher and she was trying to peacefully make pirates leave her and the rest of people that were in the train all by herself knowing that she might die and she almost did. Violet sees a wooden chair standing next to a desk she carries it and sets it next to the bed and sits on it. Violet looks at Clementine and sees a strand of hair on her face she reaches out to put it behind Clem's ear, she hesitates for a second but still does it. She waits another couple of minutes hoping Clementine will wake up but she doesn't and the doctor didn't exactly say when just 'shortly', so she gets up from the chair and looks last one time on brunette and before she could even think she leans down and kisses Clem on her forehead then walks out of the room and house directly heading to the courtyard where she can already see Louis, Aasim, Sophie, Artyom, Stepan, Alyosha and one woman she doesn't know, probably someone from the group Clem and the rest brought here, she sits next to Louis and waits, someone will be doing breakfast shortly, at least Violet hopes so. "How is she?" Artyom asks and looks at Violet, she shrugs. 

"Good, I guess? She's alive that I know." Violet answers his question not looking at him, she's too afraid that he'll see that her cheeks got a little bit redder when she thought about that kiss from a couple of minutes back. 

"We know that too Vi, doctor told us she's alive but not much more." Louis says and nudges Violet with his elbow when he saw her face. 

"Nodge me one more time and I'll nudge you in your face with a fist." Violet threatens in English and Louis smiles at her and nudges her again. "I won't understand how the hell Aasim had fallen for you." Violet mutters out again in English and Louis places his hands over his heart and pretends to be hurt by Violet's words. 

"Me too." Louis retorts in English earning Violet's eye roll. 

Couple of days passed and Clementine is already awake, she's walking with help of crutches but her leg is getting better and better, she should be able to walk in a day or two, at least that's what doctor said, her ribs weren't broken as the doctor thought but seriously bruised, people from Olga's group are helpful, they managed to make hunting areas much larger and sometimes hunting parties are gone for a more than a day, Clem wanted to go on a one quickly but Artyom said it's stupid and that she will go when she'll be healed, she was angry but at least she managed to convince him to reschedule going back to Moscow by a month because Lee and Carley won't believe no one else in life on the surface apart from Clementine. To kill time Clementine played on the guitar for kids, sometimes Violet, Louis, Sophie, or Minnie were listening too but only when they had some free time, or another thing she's doing is drawing in her notebook, when Artyom is making detailed notes from each mission Clem is drawing a moment from a mission she remembers, for example, she drew her helping Violet up when they were in that bandit camp Clem saved Violet's group from, she has two drawings from that mission, she also drew her and Duke sneaking in the bushes while some bandits were sitting around the campfire, but she also draws things that aren't in any way related with missions, she has a couple of drawings of the sea in different weather and one with Miller's grave on the first plan, but lately she started to draw people, she has a drawing of herself playing guitar for kids, Louis' while he plays piano, Artyom's and Anna's looking at the map of terrains surrounding village, and Violet's doing her signature eye roll. "Sophie finally met someone who is better than her at painting." Violet says as she looks at different drawings she asked if she can see them because she once saw Clem drawing in her notebook. 

"I think you're the first person to ever see it, maybe Artyom saw me drawing in it but never actual drawings." Clementine admits, no one ever saw it as far as she knows and she's sure that probably no one would dare to take something that belongs to her. 

"Well, I'm honored but seriously your drawings are great." Violet praises as she flips the page and starts to look on another drawing, Clem's heart swell when Violet says it, she risks a glance at the blonde and she's too focused on drawing to see brunette, Clem feels butterflies in her stomach as well as her face heating up she quickly looks away and hopes no one will see her, there's a difference between when only she and rest of her friends from metro and travel across Russia were living in the village and now when Violet's and Olga's group it's crowded but she likes it, some people from Olga's group still thank her and Artyom for giving them a house as well as Brody, Sophie, and Ruby. "You know what I have a question, how would your recovery look in the metro?" Violet asks, she asked only a couple questions, definitely less than Aasim and Louis. 

"Looking at who I was back there? There would be no recovery, they'd just patch me up and when I'd have a mission I go, no questions asked." Clem answers honestly, but it wasn't because she would have to, she would just tell she can do it and they wouldn't complain. 

"Why?" Violet asks before she can think, Clementine sighs a little. 

"Well, I'm best ranger Order has, Artyom is equal to me, but he left the Order so I'm the best even if I don't want to be and I just didn't want to disappoint people." Clem admits trying to sound serious but she just can't, not when she's looking at Violet, or even talking to her, just thinking about her brings back the butterflies and she doesn't remember why she has them Violet's the first person to ever make her feel that. 

"Thanks for being honest." Violet mutters while still watching another one of the drawings. 

"And now I have a question, what do you do in free time, or when you need silence?" Clem asks, she's worried she pushed too far. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that." 

"Don't be. I saw your drawings, how about I show you what I do?" Violet offers and Clem nods, she reaches for her crutches but Violet stops her. "Not now, it has to be dark for that, so wait some more, it's almost evening, just a couple hours more and besides, you're playing guitar today at dinner, remember?" Violet reminds her and Clem nods, she knows she does but after she agreed she understood that everyone will be there, watching and listening to her play guitar, it was easier with kids. 

"Yeah, I do. I'll fuck it up." Clem shares her worries and Violet shakes her head, closes the notebook and places it on the table in front of her, they're sitting in the courtyard right now, people will start to gather shortly. 

"I would beg to differ." Louis says with a loud voice, he sits next to Clem and throws his arm around her shoulders. "From everyone I ever heard you're almost the best with guitar, only Stepan is better than you." Louis assures Clem, she sighs, she might as well try, no one would laugh at her and even if someone would Clem can already see someone throwing food at that person. 

"Fuck it. I'm going for my guitar." Clem says, reaches for her crutches and starts heading towards her house, right before she reached the door she heard someone running behind her, she turns behind and sees Violet. 

"I'll help you, I don't see you going with crutches and carrying a guitar." Violet says, Clem slowly nods she didn't think of how she's going to get back. They enter the house and immediately enter the bedroom. 

"Sorry for the mess, I didn't have really time to clean here. If you have my notebook throw it on the bed." Clem says and hears something being thrown on the bed, she hears also Violet groan. 

"A goddamned trenchcoat? I thought only Louis is stupid enough to wear it." Violet says when she spots the trenchcoat laying on the ground, it probably fell out when she was picking something from the wardrobe and Clem looks at her with a serious look, it's not a normal trenchcoat, Clem reinforced it with kevlar from a couple of bulletproof vests they found. 

"Then try to lift it." Clem challenges with a smirk, Violet leans down and starts to lift it up but she didn't expect it to be that heavy so she almost dropped it. 

"What the hell?" Violet says with a surprised voice after she put the coat down, Clem is still smirking mostly at Violet's shocked expression. 

"Kevlar, I once had to carry it for two days, imagine it." Clem says, picks the coat up and places it in the wardrobe, Violet is still thinking about something. "At least you can shot me and nothing serious would happen to me, maybe a bruise, or broken bone in the worst case." 

Clementine turns around and thinks that Violet will be holding a guitar in her hands waiting for Clem, but she's still in some sort of a trance, she just blindly looks in front of herself without moving. "Vi?" Clem calls out, Violet shakes her immediately and looks at Clem with a look that Clem can't quite read. "You're alright?" 

"Yeah, yeah. Just... Thinking. Where's your guitar?" Violet asks, Clem points at the desk standing behind Violet, the guitar is leaned against it, Violet swiftly picks it up and waits for Clem by the door leading outside the house, a couple of seconds later they are out of the house and they can hear people talking already, they had to expend the courtyard and they overdid it, but at least they won't have to do it again for quite some time. 

They sit at the same place, almost everybody is there, only Alyosha and some of the people from Olga's group are missing, but as far as Clementine knows they're hunting, Artyom isn't there too, but he should get here any moment now. "You're going to sing today?" One of kids asks Clementine, she didn't even know when he approached her, she looks at the boy and thinks about it for a second. 

"Maybe? I don't know, and there aren't a lot of songs I know and every one of them is in English." Clem explains to him he just nods enthusiastically and runs back, probably to his parents. 

"Clementine, I beg you, sing, I'll pay, and if you'll wish I will let you cut off one of my dreads." Louis begs, and Aasim immediately shakes his head at Louis's rant. 

"I won't cut your dreads off, I don't know what bugs or other shit you have in it, but as for payment, I'll take one of your hunting trips while I'll be able to." Clementine demands with a confident tone and glaring at Louis, she isn't sure if she should sing, but she won't let an opportunity to go hunting pass. 

Without even thinking twice Louis accepts Clementine's offer with no regret on his face whatsoever. 

"Just so you know, you could have just asked and I'd agree." Clem informs him with a smirk, and he pretends to be offended while Violet rolls her eyes at her friend's antics. Artyom has finally approached the table which means that Clem can start playing, she just waits for everyone to get quiet so everyone will hear. After everyone went quiet, Clem felt everyone watching her but she ignored the feeling and reached for the guitar, tuned it, cleared her throat and started to play on it, at least the song isn't very quick. After a couple of seconds of just playing the guitar Clem started to sing, everyone listened to her like they're in a trance of some sort. 

I wish I had something more to give you  
You've been feeling bad this time of year  
If I could I would drive out to see you  
Things are finally looking up for me this time  
Take it from me, I'd be lost without you  
I try to run away, but you're running up on me faster, and I  
I could barely breathe, I couldn't even turn around  
I only hope we make it home  
Safe and sound  
Safe and sound

If I had a dime, for the days I've spent  
Just trying to unwind, sitting on the steps  
I'd buy a star in your name, like I heard on the radio  
I would buy a brand new house, where we can go

Take it from me, I'd be lost without you  
I try to run away, but you're running up on me faster, and I  
I could barely breathe, I couldn't even turn around  
I only hope we make it home  
Safe and sound  
Safe and sound

If I had one wish, I would give it up  
To be standing here, just like this, up on the rooftop  
But it's so hard to look down, when I see your face  
There's no more time to spend, no time to waste

Take it from me I'd be lost without you  
I try to run away, but you're running up on me faster and I  
I could barely breathe, I couldn't even turn around  
I only hope we make it home  
Safe and sound  
Safe and sound  
Safe and sound  
Safe and sound

When Clementine finished the song, everyone was quiet for a while before everybody started to applauding, the sound of cheering erupted throughout the village, Clem just smiled shyly and avoided eye contact, she isn't used to playing for everyone, she could manage to play for kids but that was an exception, she looked at Violet for a second, she was smiling and still looking at Clem but she stopped when Louis nudged her in the ribs and she hit him in the arm, hard, still better than in a face how she promised him. After people stopped their applause and cheering they started to serve food and everyone was eating and chatting. "How come I never heard you sing?" Artyom asks and Clem rolls her eyes, she never used to sing in front of people, just when she was alone. 

"Because I didn't want you to? I did it only because Louis gave up one of his hunting trips to hear me sing, so yeah, worth it." Clem explains him, he chuckles and nods, he was surprised when he heard Clementine sing, he knew she was going to play but he didn't hear anything about singing. 

"It starts to get dark." Clem states about an hour later, the courtyard is mostly empty, just her and Violet, she hoped to get that kind of moment, it's hard to get some privacy in this place, Violet nods and gets up. 

"Follow me, I'll tell you when we get there." Violet says with some sort of mystery in her voice, but Clementine complies and starts following the blonde. 

Clem firstly realized it's outside the village, but it didn't bother her whole area is clear of mutants, she made sure of that, and if more will show up she'll handle them, the second thing she noticed that they're following the same route which Clem goes to a cliff to watch the sea but Violet is quiet whole walk so she doesn't exactly know where they're going, but she follows blonde. After they arrived where Violet wanted to Clem already knows it's exactly the same place from which she's watching the sea. "So what we're doing?" Clementine asks, Violet is still quiet Clem looks up and sees how the stars look, the sky is without any cloud so she can see everything clearly and she just can't stop looking, she was never here at night. 

"Sometimes I need the quiet. Just to get away for a while." Violet explains looking at the stars too. "Clem?" Violet calls out, grabbing Clementine's attention but not making her look away from the stars. 

"Yeah?" 

"I know you rescued us because of those bandits being somewhat dangerous for the village, but you could've just left us, avoid all the bullshit with pretending to be one of them. Why didn't you?" Violet asks catching Clementine off guard, Clem knows that maybe she should tell Violet why, that she saw her in Novosibirsk and that's why she wanted to go alone, but the question is will Violet believe her? 

"Sure I didn't have to give the order to Duke to pretend to be one of them, I could just open fire on them but that was a death sentence for all of you. But the much bigger reason is that I saw you earlier, you see, a couple of months ago Anna was sick, the only cure for this was in Novosibirsk and radiation there is huge, so, me, Artyom, and our old leader Miller Anna's father was looking for it whilst the rest was looking for some upgrades for Aurora to help us get through the winter, Miller died giving his anti-rad to Artyom, he was dying too and if not for Katya and transfusion of blood he'd die too, I had a lot of rads too but it wasn't as bad as they had it, but back in the Novosibirsk I had a hallucination, there was a girl talking to me only once every other time when I approached her she was already dead, and funny thing is that this girl was looking exactly the same as you, her voice was identical, and when I saw you in that bandit camp I wanted to go alone, but Anna made me take Duke with me. So the reason why I didn't leave you to die is that I saw you because of radiation." Clem explains everything the whole time looking at Violet, she never told it to Violet as she didn't think that blonde would believe but right now she just have hope that she will. 

Violet's eyes go wide for a second but she nods lightly after a second. "I'm glad." She looks back at the stars. 

"Do you know any constellations?" Clementine asks Violet and after a short while gets her answer. 

"Nope. You?" Violet asks back, Clem did have a book back in VDNH but she can't remember them. 

"I had a book about them back in the metro, but I can't remember them." Clementine answers, she tries for a while to remember any but she just can't. 

"Let's make some up. Come over here. You can sit down without falling to your death." Violet tells her and sits near the edge, Clem sits next to her without thinking. "If I remember right, everyone's born under a special sign, right? It determines your personality." Violet says. 

"That's astrology, not astronomy." Clem corrects her, she can remember that much from the metro. Violet is quiet for a second and shakes her head lightly. 

"Whatever, let's make up our own. Rules, signs, what it says about you. It's not like anyone remembers the old way." Violet states and she's right, maybe some older members remember something but it's doubtful. "Okay, let's do it. There! See? It's a fish." Violet says and points to the sky at some stars. Clem looks closely and after a moment she sees it. 

"Right. Now it needs a personality." 

"Bright, pretty, good with other people. Always moving, tons of energy. Sounds like anyone we know?" Violet asks after her interpretation. 

"Yeah, that sounds like you." Clementine states, she knows that Violet isn't the best with people but she knows people that are worse. 

Violet giggles before saying anything. "Weren't you listening? I said 'good with other people'." 

"Well, maybe not that part." 

"I'll try to take the rest as a compliment." They both again start to look at the stars, making up constellations. "I spy with my little eye a knife. See it?" Violet asks, and Clem almost immediately locates it. "Awesome. This one's easy. Smart, clean, vicious, dependable. Someone you want in a fight. Doesn't take crap from anyone. Gets shit done." 

"That's mine, definitely." Clem answers, and Violet breaths in deeply before responding. 

"Yeah, that's a good one for you." Violet agrees. "Okay, one more time." Violet says before looking around and making up another constellation. "I found a bird." 

"Like, a real bird?" 

"No, a star bird." Clementine looks around and connects the little shiny dots on the sky until they make a bird when Clem imagines lines between them. "It could go anywhere it wanted to. Up and up and up, and never come back." Violet describes with a dreamy voice, Clem looks at her knowing she wishes to be that bird. 

"You wish it was you, don't you?" Clem says with a soft voice. 

"Sometimes, when it all feels so heavy down here." Violet answers, not making eye contact with Clem. "I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be weightless." Violet's eyes widen after she realizes how much she told and shakes her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to just... Talk so much." Violet apologizes, Clem is still looking at the stars and Violet glances at her, she shifts a little and again looks at Clem. "It's just, I've watched people leave before. Family, friends. They never come back. But you did. And now, I can't imagine what it would be like if you weren't here." Violet admits, she means the accident with pirates, Clem could just let go, die peacefully, be away from the almost constant nightmare, but Clem couldn't leave so many people mourning, Artyom, Anna, Louis. Violet... She just wished to see them once more, she just had to. "Um, shit, that sounds so much dumber when I say it out loud." Violet whispers, probably to herself, Clem takes a deep breath, she can't hide her feelings anymore, she could barely handle it earlier. 

"I think, I mean, I hope... We're more than friends." Clem says in a voice just barely above a whisper, she never was so stressed about anything. Violet's eyes widen at Clementine's words, she can't believe what brunette is saying, even if it is what she wants. "And I want..." Clem continues, risks a glance at Violet not knowing what to say, Violet looks back at her. Clem breaks the eye contact just for a second thinks about what she's about to do and after she's done with thinking, she leans in and kisses Violet, Violet's eyes are opened whole time, not knowing what's going on, Clementine feels so much she can't comprehend what she actually feels but she knows it's good, after she leans back she looks away from Violet not risking even a glance, waiting for any response while Violet is still looking at the brunette still with wide eyes. 

"Holy shit." Violet responds in English after a second making Clem smile. 

"That's romantic." Clem says back in English just now she risk a quick glance at Violet she finally looks away from Clem and looks down in direction of the sea. 

"I mean, holy shit." Violet says again in English looking up a little so she sees the stars again. Violet raises her hand wanting to place it over Clementine's, she hesitates for a second but she fights it and places her hand on Clementine's, brunette smiles at her before looking back at the stars. 

They watched the stars in complete silence for a couple of minutes, just enjoying the company and silence, but Clem doesn't know what will happen after this moment will end, will they act like it never happened? Can they be open about it? Someone will probably dislike it, someone might be disgusted, some people won't treat is as normal human behavior, Artyom and Anna will accept her she's sure of that, everyone in the village that is in Sparta Order will, Katya, Nastya, Krest, Yermak will too, but the rest? She ain't so sure. "So now what? Who are we, Vi?" Clem asks right above the whisper, she doesn't know what blonde wants, but she's sure she wants to know. 

"Girlfriends?" Violet offers, they don't look at each other, just look at the stars. 

"Yeah, that sounds good. But... Are you comfortable with being open about it? I know some people might... Not take it well, but I can keep them in place." Clem asks, she really wants to be open about and not hide just to show some affection. 

Violet thinks about that question, she doesn't want to hide, she knows that everyone from her group will accept it, probably, she just doesn't know if Olga's group will. "I guess we can? I mean, I don't want to hide, but what if people will react badly? Or will try to do something to us?" Violet asks, she's worried a lot more than Clem is, brunette looks at Violet with a serious expression. 

"Don't worry about me, but if anyone will try to do something to you, he'll regret it." Clementine promises, she won't let anything happen to blonde. 

"Then, I guess. But let's wait a couple of days and we don't tell everyone, just our friends, we both don't know about half of the people you brought lately." Violet offers and Clem likes the idea of waiting a couple of days. 

"Okay. We wait for some time, but knowing Anna, she'll see something is between us." Clem laughs a little, Anna always know if Clementine is overthinking something, is worried, Anna basically knows Clem more than Clem does herself. 

"Well, then we'll have to hope she won't tell anyone. Or don't find out." Violet says and Clem smirks. 

"Doubtful." Clem smiles and looks back to the stars, they won't be bothered, they can sit here until the morning, until the stars will hide. 

It was about a week since that night, both Violet and Clem didn't sleep that night as they were too excited from what happened, they did manage to keep their relationship a secret but Anna, of course, found out and told Artyom but Clem managed to keep them away from telling anyone else, Clem was ready to tell everybody but Violet still wasn't she was anxious about this since that night, all the time when Clementine showed affection outside their houses to blonde was almost always followed by the question 'what if someone sees?' but that didn't mean that blonde didn't like it, she was too scared that somebody will see. Clementine now walks normally, she doesn't feel much different but it still hurts when she puts too much pressure on the leg, and sometimes when she trains her shoulder reminds of itself but apart from that her everyday life hasn't changed, no one pities her, no one goes easy on her, apart from Violet, Clem started to train her again but the blonde was going easy on the brunette and Clem knew this and she didn't like this and when she asked why Violet does it she responds that she doesn't want to hurt her, Clem does understand her, that doesn't change the fact she doesn't like it but she tolerates it only because she's going easy on the blonde too. 

"Clementine?" A man approached the brunette when she was training with Violet, but they stopped when they saw him. 

"Yeah?" 

"Krest, Tokarev, and one of our engineers want to talk to you, they're waiting at you in Krest's house." He says and walks off, Clementine doesn't know what do they want but it has to be important if they send someone to come and tell her about this and didn't come for her personally. 

"I have to go then. If they didn't get here personally it has to be important. Maybe I'll find some time and train with you more." Clem says, Violet nods. Brunette looks around, no one is around, almost everybody has something to do, so she quickly kisses blonde's cheek and walks away to Krest's house trying to calm herself down, she's still is hesitant to kiss Violet as well as the blonde is, but she's not anxious about it as Violet is, but her mind is partially wondering what Krest and the rest might want. She goes inside without knocking and sees Krest, Tokarev, and engineer his name is Isaak that much Clem knows. "So, what do you all want? I hope it's important." Clem calls out when she sees that they didn't even notice she walked in. 

"We have an idea to get clean water, and electricity back here." Isaak states and gets Clementine's attention immediately, she wanted to get at least some generators back here but she didn't know how. 

"Go on." Clem says and gets closer to the tables and sees the plans of the whole village. They start to explains how they're going to get water here, clean water what is more important, but she didn't understand a thing he was talking about, she just knows that Isaak and Tokarev will go and deal with it when she and Krest will go and try to find some solar panels, she agrees to the plan, and they immediately start to get ready Krest knows where there might be some solar panels, it's a closed off old power plant with them, he says that Alyosha talked about this place when he came back from a hunt and that there's still a couple of panels there. 

Clem had gone straight to her house, she didn't even know that Violet went after her until they reached the house. "What happened?" Violet asks, Clem turns around to her with a slight smile. 

"Krest, Tokarev, and Isaak, you might not know him, have an idea to get electricity and clean water back here, can you imagine taking a real shower?" Clem says and Violet looks at her with something that Clem can read. 

"And I guess, that you're going?" Violet asks and Clem nods, she saw Violet hug herself and look down, she's scared most probably. 

"I'll come back, I always did, this time will be no exception." Clem promises and places her hands on Violet's shoulders. "After I'll come back, we'll go stargazing again, what do you think?" Clem offers, Violet still isn't looking back, Clem after thinking about it for a second pulls blonde into a hug. "I'll be back before the supper, trust me, if this will work, and there will be hot water you'll see that it was worth it." Clem whispers, Violet isn't exactly moving apart from wrapping her arms around Clem too. 

"Just promise you'll come back." Violet asks, Clem knows she can't make that promise, no matter how much she wants to. 

"I can't make that promise, but I can promise to try my best." Clem responds with a smile, Violet has a small smile on her face but just for a moment, then they pull away. "I have to get changed, you should get out before anyone will start to suspect something, Artyom and Anna are already enough." Clem suggests, blonde nods and walks out, Clem sighs and starts to go to her bedroom, she takes out her suit and put it on after taking clothes she was in, it's hard because of the bullet wound on her abdomen but she manages, she quickly loads two magazines of ammo to Kalash and takes it along with the rifle and starts to head where Krest is waiting for her, packing tools to the van. 

"Can we go?" Krest asks when he notices Clementine, brunette nods, both of them sit inside of the van and start riding to the point that Krest has marked on his map, Clementine is driving, from what he was telling Clem Isaak, Tokarev and one warrior are already going to deal with water and if they're lucky they should be back right before them and be able to fix panels, connect them, and then be there when Tokarev and Isaak will announce that they have water again, Clem nods, it's well planned, Krest also mentions they're going to take a couple of those panels so it'll be enough, from what he heard from Alyosha, there's another van, similar to this but without sits in the back, Krest will try and repair it too so they can take even more and if possible maybe find some generators. 

"Is anyone there? Should I be worried? Shouldn't we take someone more with us?" Clementine asks, she wants to know if she should keep her rifle close, she doesn't want to come back, wounded again, so Violet will have to worry, again. 

"Alyosha told me that no one was there, of course, mutants can be seen but if we'll be discreet enough they won't even notice, plus I asked the team that was here yesterday if they saw anything dangerous and they said that it's as safe as it can be." 

"I hope you're right, no one knows I'm here, I should ask someone to come with us, I have a bad feeling about this." Clem complains it's unusual to see her complaining about anything, she's always trying to be optimistic. 

"Don't worry, it's more driving than actual work there, I say we repair that van if we can, take panels, and looks for the generators if something happens when we'll be looking for them we run to cars and drive away as fast as possible." Krest offers, it isn't such a bad plan but it'll be hard for Clem to run. 

They arrived at their destination a couple of hours later, and immediately spotted the van, it was standing in front of an old workshop, there may be something useful in there, so while Krest is repairing the van Clem is lock picking the back door, she knew how to do it since she was thirteen, it was not really useful on safe stations, but it was useful on stations with enemies on them, was it Fourth Reich, or bandits, it was always useful. When the door was open Clem walked inside of the workshop and looked around, no one or nothing was inside, but it's full of different supplies, but there's a generator as well as a lot of fuel to it, maybe no one found this place, either way, no one was living here for a longer time because of the amount of dust in the workshop, at least Clem doesn't have to worry she's robbing someone, she opened the front doors to the workshop from inside and just as she did it Krest was turning the van on and it did without much of a hassle, but it was rusty and it was missing both doors but it was working, and if they repaired the other van they can repair that one too. "We have the generator as well as fuel for it." Clem says to man, he nods and walks outside the van after turning it off, they managed to fit the generator in a van, but it wasn't easy, they'll strap the panels to the roof, what Clem is hoping that the generator won't rip the hole in the chassis. They found the power plan even quicker but when Clem looked around it she realized they won't be able to take any panels, they're too large, they would have to own a truck with a trailer, Clem looked around and after playing a little she managed to turn the power plant on, so they're working and don't need repairs, but now they have to make it only for the village, so no one else will be able to use the power plant, it took them a good hour to figure it out but they're sure it's working, at least it should, they hope it does. "Well, if it's working I'm making someone find me some speakers." Clem smirks after they're done, Krest chuckles and pats her on the back. 

"We're done here, we can go back, the hunting parties can make sure no one messes with the plant, and if we'll get even more man, maybe we'll be able to station some people here." Krest says, it would be nice for them to have a stable power because if someone will turn it off they'll have to come back here and turn it on again, but Clem doubts anyone still remembers how to operate this place. 

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it will be, maybe I don't have such bad luck after all." Clem states, most of her missions ended in her having to either sneak her way through enemies or having to fight them all and there's no one here. 

They start to ride back, but Clem made a quick look around the plant if no one is nearby and no one was, she had to take out to watchmen but apart from that it's safe. It was another couple of hours of driving, it took even longer since they had to drive a bit slower to minimalize the risk of the generator and fuel damaging Clementine's van, but they were getting closer and closer. When they arrived at the gates Stepan was there and opened the gates for them, he constantly looked at the van which Clementine is driving, she told him what they were doing and apparently no one noticed to power getting back but when Stepan got inside the house that was unused and turned the light on it did turn on he laughed with joy and told the news to Clementine, she hit the driving wheel from excitement and the rest of drive to garage Clem had a big smile plastered on her face. Right before she turned to the garage she noticed Violet running after them, Clem and Krest parked the vans and walked out the garage, Violet was almost there and when she was right in front of Clem Violet hugged the brunette, the pure force of the grip she had made brunette chuckle. "I'm fine, I told you I'll be back before supper." Clem says with a smile before Violet pulled away and checked the brunette for any injuries, just to be sure, Krest already went away before Violet was hugging Clem, he told that he's going to look for Isaak and Tokarev leaving Clem and Violet all alone, some people already were after their work but Clem didn't care, she wanted blonde to believe she's alright. "So, we're going stargazing or not?" Clem asks still smiling while Violet was finishing checking for any injuries. 

"I have another idea. You might like it but I'll tell you after you're going to tell me how that mission of yours went." Violet promises, Clem smiles even wider. 

"Okay, but let me get changed first, I don't want to walk around in it, some kids are actually afraid of me walking in it." Clem says, there was one girl which was afraid of Clem in the suit, Clem was wearing the hood in it and it was almost dark so her face was barely seeable and she was still limping a little and a rifle in her hands made her look in it like she's no one which those kids know. 

"I can imagine that. When you and Duke saved us Louis was just whispering my ear that you're going to kill us." Violet says and Louis did seem a little scared of Clem before she took her hood off. 

When they reached the house Clem went to a switch for the lights in the living room and turned on the lights and started smirking at Violet. "So, you made it?" She asks like she can't believe it, Clem nods at her question and disappears in the bedroom and reappears a couple of minutes later in the same clothes she wore earlier. Clem tried to turn the water on and it was clean, it didn't seem radiated or dirty, she drank a little of it and it was tasting normal, she couldn't feel anything off about the water, she'll just have to ask either Tokarev or Isaak. 

Someone knocked on the door and Clem let them in, it was Tokarev and Isaak, they asked if she checked if the water is working and if it's clean, she just approached the tap and turned the crystal clean water flow and she looks at Isaak and he seems proud of himself as well as Tokarev. Isaak pours some water in his hands and drinks it, he says that it's as clean as it can be. "The water is everywhere right? Showers too?" Clem asks, Isaak nods and she can't help but already imagine how it will feel to take a warm shower, she has a boiler in the bathroom but it didn't work because there wasn't electricity, and now it should work, she'll just have to understand how it exactly works and she doesn't want to bother anyone with her being all furious when it won't work and she'll have to try again, Tokarev knows about this since he saw Clem working on speakers that were supposed to get into one of Sparta's vehicles she was so pissed that she threw a screwdriver at a wooden table and it managed to pierce it. "Okay, then I'm going to work on something, Tokarev, Isaak, if you don't need anything more, get out." Clem says with a smirk, they listen, and say that they will tell everyone at supper, Clem agrees to this plan. 

Just before Clem wanted to ask Violet if she can get out too she reminded herself of something that Sophie and Brody said to her, that Violet didn't warm up that quickly to someone for a long time, they were close to telling Clem what they meant but they stopped and Clem wants to know what happened, at least she wants to ask. "Vi?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Sophie and Brody were telling me I'm the first person you warmed up so quickly to they ended it with 'since' but they didn't tell me since so I want to know if you can tell me since." Clem asks, she sees how Violet drops her head just a little and avoids eye contact with brunette, which makes her worried she shouldn't ask that question. 

"Two years ago I had a girlfriend, I gave everything I could to that relationship, I loved her and after some time she told me that I was just an experiment and that she was playing with me and on the next day she wasn't in the school, Marlon told me she left." Violet explains, she was sitting on the couch and Clementine now knows why Violet wanted her to make a promise she'll come back, she thought that Clem won't come back either, she also wonders how much of a low-life you have to be to tell something like that to someone who genuinely loves you. Clem sits next to Violet before saying anything. 

"Shit, I should send someone else to go with Krest, I'm sorry I went." Clem apologizes, Violet shakes her head to stop her girlfriend from further apologizes but it can't help to stop Clem feeling guilty. 

"Don't be, you didn't know and I could tell you before you went. I guess that I thought that maybe if I'll let you do what you want you won't leave me as she did." Violet says, Clem could see tears forming in older girl's eyes, she pulled blonde closer and embraced her, she doesn't know the girl that hurt Violet, but Clem already knows that she hates her with her whole being. 

"I won't leave you Violet." Clementine promises, she means it, she just hopes blonde will believe it. "I respect your opinion, if you won't want me to do something, tell me, and maybe I will be able to avoid doing it, but I can't promise I'll always be able to listen to you." 

"Okay." Violet answers in a really low whisper, Clementine could barely hear it. They were sitting like that for another minute or so and before they pulled away Clem kissed the top of Violet's head. 

"As much as I want you to stay a little longer, you should go before anyone will suspect anything, I have to take care of one thing and I'll join you, okay?" Clem offers, Violet nods lightly and gets up, Clem reminds herself that she may or may not swear and scream more than usual. "Ignore any swearing and screaming." Clem informs, Violet looks at her weirdly for a second before nodding again and walking out of the house, she immediately heads to the courtyard, she spots Louis, Minnie, and Brody, laughing at something when Louis visibly denies whatever Minnie said she also sees Tokarev, Krest, and that man which was in Clem's house along with Tokarev a couple of minutes ago. 

Violet sat next to her friends. "What are we laughing about?" She asks and Minnie wipes the tears from her eyes before answering. 

"When Marlon was teaching him how to shoot with a bow, I can't remember when I laughed so hard in my life." Minnie says, it wouldn't funny but Louis tried to hit a hand-made target for two hours and didn't hit even once. Louis looked to his right and spotted Aasim. 

"Babe, they're bullying me!" Louis complains to him, Aasim sits next to him and sighs. 

"Laughing at your misfortunes isn't bullying, most of them are actually funny when you hear them." Aasim says, it's quite usual to tell what Louis did a couple years back, one of the stories Violet likes the best is when Louis came running out of dorms back at the school screaming bloody murder that there's a mutant in his room, everyone took it seriously, Marlon had his bow, Louis his chair leg, and Violet her cleaver, and they went to check Louis' room only to find a small rat running around the room, Violet laughed at this for ten minutes straight. 

"Oh yeah. That's right. But how about we'll talk about a certain brunette that Violet likes." Louis smirks at Violet while she glares at him. 

"Vi, you can't be mad at us for thinking you like her, you're literally glowing with big gay energy whenever she's around." Minnie tells her in English, now Violet glares at her, no matter how right they are. 

"FUCK!" Everyone hears Clem scream from back her house but Violet ignores it. 

"Well, even if I like her, then what? You'll start to tell me that I shouldn't? That I remember how it ended last time?" Violet asks with an angry voice, she's sure that they'll start reminding her about what happened two years ago it's what Violet is afraid when she'll tell them what's between her and Clem. 

"Uh, no? She's far better than that bitch, I mean, when she saved us from those bandits I thought that she's some kind of a badass that isn't scared of anything and that doesn't care about others but in reality, she cares more about other than herself, she plays on guitar for kids, she's kind, sweet and isn't screaming at you for the slightest mistake you do." Minnie says. Violet looks at her with a surprised look for a second then Brody, Louis, and Aasim agree with red-head. 

They all hear another swears and screams from Clementine's house before they continue talking. "I heard that one boy from Olga's group likes Clem far more than a friend if you don't like her we might as well tell him she's all his." Minne says with a teasing grin, it isn't true but Violet believed it and again started glaring at her but still Violet feels a pang of jealousy. 

"Fuck. Off." Violet says slowly, now all of her friends sitting with her grins at her. 

"So you do like her." Louis says with a proud voice, Violet groans, she has enough of this. 

"Yes, I like her, do you all feel fucking better?" Violet says with an annoyed voice in English, Louis and Minnie nod. 

"Yes, we are. But you are aware she likes you too?" Louis asks, Violet is well aware of that for over a week now, but she isn't sure if she wants to tell anyone yet so she's just quiet not even trying to talk back because if not for the night a week ago she wouldn't believe. 

"Why are we even talking about this? It's my life, not yours." Violet asks, she wants to stop talking about her relationship, Minnie smiles. 

"Because we want you to be happy and you're just making it harder for yourself." Minnie answers, Violet rolls her eyes at this statement. 

Another scream from Clementine's house, but this time it sounded like it's more of a relieved one than an angry one. More and more people started to show up and everyone heard Clementine's screams yet no one tried and ask if something's wrong, Violet would if Clem didn't tell her to ignore it. As another minute passed Clementine finally approached them and sat next to Violet, Louis grinned at them, Violet again started to glare at him, but he didn't care. "So, Clem, what do you think about Violet?" Louis asks, Violet groans and Clem looks at Louis. 

"I have my opinion on everyone I know, her included, but I don't have to tell it." Clem answers, she has her opinion on Violet, in Clementine's opinion Violet is the most beautiful and sweet girl she ever met and feels lucky to call Violet as her girlfriend. 

"Oh come on, tell us." Louis begs, Clementine shakes her head and Louis whines like he's eight years old, but Clem ignores him. 

When Clem sees Tokarev and Isaak she excuses herself from the table and approaches them, she wants to talk about how they'll inform everyone, she has an idea but she wants to know their opinion as she wasn't the one to think about this plan. "Krest told me that instead of bringing panels here you turned the power plant on and redirect all electricity here, good work." Isaak says with a slight smile, she nods, Krest helped but Clem did most of the work, even if she won't admit it. 

"I have an idea of how we can tell everybody about our achievement without having to shout so everybody can hear." Clem announces, they look at her wanting to know what she means. "Well, I think that maybe Isaak and Krest will tell everyone in Olga's group, Tokarev in Artyom's, and I will in Violet's, in my opinion, it won't cause that much commotion." 

"Good. We were actually thinking how to do it, thanks." Isaak thanks, Clem nods again, at least he isn't like most of the people that she met that are educated in the metro have such huge ego that it was hard to even talk to some without getting annoyed in a couple of seconds most of them think of themselves as higher beings than people that work with crops or animals, Clem is a Ranger and doesn't think of herself as more than other people. 

Clem got back to the table and of course someone had to ask what it was about. "I'll tell you when everybody will be here." Clem promises, they nod and wait it took another ten minutes but everybody was at the courtyard, Clem located Isaak and showed him a thumb up, he nodded and showed it to Tokarev and Krest, she stood up everybody from Violet's group looked at her and paid attention to her. "So some of you saw me ride out of the village and come back with another van, so some of you may wonder what we were doing. So basically a couple of people have thought of a plan to return electricity and water back here, so I agreed for the plan and went to make it happen, me and Krest took care of electricity we turned a power plant in a small city on and redirected all electricity here whilst Tokarev and Isaak worked on water, but what's the best is that it works, we have clean water, electricity, we can take showers, hot showers even if you know how." Clem explains to them she can see a couple of surprised looks on their faces, she has a smirk on her face while she sits back, she sees Tokarev talking to Artyom's group, from all of it only she isn't there. 

"So you're telling us that you fixed electricity here, bring water back, and you treat it like it's nothing? If I'll have hot water in my shower I will praise the ground you walk on." Marlon promises to Clem she shakes her head she doesn't want Marlon to keep his promise because he has it in common with Louis to always keep his word. 

"I didn't do much, I only made sure to turn the power plant on and redirect the electricity here, I'm sure that Tokarev and Isaak had the worse part of work." Clem says even if she isn't sure if it's true. 

"Yeah, and we could sit there for days and don't even know how to turn it on and you even redirected electricity here, you did more in one day than we could achieve in years." Violet states, Clem smiles a little and doesn't say anything, she doesn't see a point in arguing. Not long after they were all eating and talking about different things, but mostly everyone talked about how nice it will be to take a shower. 

After everyone ate and before anyone from Violet's group could walk away Louis asked if anyone wants to play cards, Violet, Clem, Minnie, and Marlon agreed the rest went to their houses. "What's the game, Lou?" Violet asks, Clem hears some steps from her left she looks there and sees Artyom approaching them with a smile. 

"Clem, thanks for helping Isaak, if I knew I'd went." Artyom says, Clem waves it off, she would suggest she went anyway and Artyom would probably agree to it as his knowledge about electricity is not as huge as Clementine's, she spent big part of her time repairing different things from speakers to generators, she even repaired a computer once but it didn't last long. 

"Don't mention it, I might as well pretend that I'm useful." Clem jokes earning a chuckle from Artyom, he shakes his head before saying anything. 

"You're one of the most useful people here." Artyom states before walking away, Clem doesn't think much of it, she thinks that she does far too less than she should even if she's trying to do as much as she can. 

"We're playing war, winner gets to ask Clementine a question." Louis answers Violet's question, Clem looks at Louis a little bit surprised. 

"What? We want to get you to know more. We barely know anything about you." Louis states, Marlon agrees with him. 

"What if I win?" Clem asks. 

"Then you can ask us a question it's only fair." Louis answers, he shuffles the cars and starts to give everyone one. Clem looks at her card and then at the others, and sees that Louis won. "You seem young in comparison to other people from Order, how old were you when you joined?" Louis asks. 

"Fifteen, I think that I'm the youngest Ranger." Clem answers honestly. 

As Clem checked her card she sees that she won. "Worst injury witnessed?" Clem asks. 

"I saw a mutant get hit in the head so hard his both eyeballs flew out. Pretty cool." Violet answers. 

"I saw someone have their intestines pulled all the way out. Like, all the way. It goes on for a while. We got a lot of guts." Louis says and Minnie says that she saw the same thing, Marlon doesn't say anything. 

"Well, I got hit by a train once after being shot twice." Clem says, she barely remembers the actual hit but she heard the story a couple of times by now. 

"Ouch." Louis responds, Clem smirks. 

"I know, right?" Clem jokes and Louis chuckles a little before giving everybody everyone another card, now Violet won. 

"Explain, how the fuck you got hit by a goddamned train?" Violet asks as her face still shows a sort of shock after she heard that Clem got hit by a train. 

"There was a battle I took part in, it was about a year after I joined Sparta, so I was the last one to retreat from what I heard I killed the most enemies from any other Ranger, and then they used an armored train on us and I was unlucky enough to be on its way, it hit me in the leg, I almost lost it and after it hit me I was unconscious for a couple of days, I was surprised I survived it, it took me over a month to walk again, but at least I didn't die." Clem tells them, she still can't believe she survived but she's grateful for it. No one says anything about it so Louis passes another card, Clem turns her card and sees Minnie winning. 

"Ever had a boyfriend?" Minnie asks with a smirk while looking at Violet, and blonde groans again. 

"Well, not a boyfriend, but I do have a girlfriend." Clem answers, Minnie does look surprised by her answer, as well as Louis and Marlon. 

"And here I thought that you're too busy for love." Marlon admits. 

"Well, you were wrong." 

"Who is it?" Louis asks, Clem smirks at him. 

"She does have a pretty funny name it's not your business." Clem says to him with a little bit of aggression in her voice, he nods agreeing to her statement. 

"You should tell them." Violet states not looking at the brunette, Clem looks at her for a second not expecting Violet to say it. 

"You trust them?" Clem asks completely ignoring everyone apart from Violet, she doesn't care if they will just guess what is between Clem and Violet, she just wants to be sure that Violet wants to tell them. 

"Yes." Violet says with enough confidence for Clementine to be sure she wants to tell them, she turns back to the rest and sees mixed expressions on their faces. 

"So, uh, correction of my previous statement, her name is Violet." Clem says with a slight stutter and sees how everyone sitting in front of her are surprised by her words, they didn't expect to hear that. 

"Huh, how long have you been hiding it from us?" Marlon asks, Violet is keeping her gaze down waiting if anyone will react badly. 

"About a week. We didn't want to tell anyone yet." Clementine answers the question, she's worried that maybe she shouldn't tell anything judging by Violet not looking at anyone. 

"And you didn't tell us?! I feel hurt." Louis almost shouts, Clem glares at him and he keeps quiet for a second. 

"Vi, we told you that she's far better than that last bitch, you were Clem's girlfriend when we told you and you didn't say a thing?" Minnie asks, Violet shrugs a little, she was expecting some kind of reaction but it's far better than she thought it will be. 

"Well, you're surprised? You were telling me that she was bad and when she left all of you said 'I told you' or 'I warned you', I didn't want this to end the same way, that all of you will say that it's a bad choice." Violet exclaims, her voice is full of anger as well as some sort of sadness. 

"We told you she's better than her." Louis defends himself and his friends but Violet rolls her eyes. 

"That's why you found out now and not in a month if you'd ever find out." Violet argues back. 

"Tell me Louis, have you ever experienced a betrayal? Did a person you loved with your whole heart betrayed you?" Clem asks with clenched teeth. After Louis doesn't say anything Clem speaks up again. "That girl left Violet, Violet loved her and Violet feels hurt she got left and you should understand it. I was four when my parents left me to get eaten by mutants. You know how something like that feels?" Louis doesn't say anything again being clearly surprised by Clementine's words, she doesn't talk a lot about her parents. "Like a part of you disappears, in my case, it was hard to get used that I don't have my parents anymore and I had some severe trust issues. In Violet's case, she began to be colder than ever, it's normal when you lose someone or something you love." When no one speaks up again she lets go of the card she was still holding. "I had enough for today." And without saying anything more she got up and headed to her house, she didn't want to argue more as she could break, it still hurts that her own parents left her to death, if not for Lee, Carley, and AJ she'd still have trust issues but she somewhat went over them even if she herself thought it's not possible. 

When Clem reached her house she immediately went to her bathroom and looked at the boiler she was trying to get working and she managed but it took more time and effort she thought it would, not thinking more about it she took all of her clothes off and gone under the shower, pulled the covers and let the water wash over her, it was just slightly warm but it got hot after a couple of minutes and Clem forgot about her stresses, she doesn't remember the only time that Clem was even more relaxed was when she was stargazing with Violet. 

She stood under the hot water for good ten minutes just enjoying the hot water but she had to get out at some point and she went out earlier than she planned, if she wanted to she could always take another shower, she used the towel she got ready earlier and started to dry herself after she was done she quickly dressed up again. She got out of the room and heard knocking on her door. "Clem, please open..." She heard Violet's muffled voice, she was probably waiting here for quite a while but she didn't hear because of the water, she quickly opened the door and saw Violet with an expression that showed no emotions whatsoever, Clem didn't even notice when blonde's arms were around her. "I thought that you're mad at me and that's why you didn't open the doors." Violet says quietly, Clem closes the door with her leg and lets go of the blonde. 

"I'm not mad, I just don't like talking about my parents it was Louis' fault, well not his I didn't have to talk about them. I'd open the door immediately after you knocked at them the first time but I was in the shower and didn't hear it." Clementine explains, Violet nods. Clem lets Violet get inside instead of standing right next to the doors, Clem reminded herself that to go stargazing after she came back from the mission. "So you want to go stargazing or not?" Clem asks, she hopes she can make Violet feel better after Violet cried because she wanted to take a shower. 

"I had another idea in my head..." Violet says and stands in front of Clem again and offers her hand to Clem. "I made you this." Clem looks at Violet's hand and sees a pin she takes it. After giving it a closer look she sees stars connected together. 

"Stars?" 

"So you won't forget that night." Violet explains, Clem pins it to the t-shirt she's wearing. "When you told me you had feelings for me, I was shocked. Then I started thinking. There's something I've always wanted to try with someone I cared about. And I never have." 

"What is it?" 

"Have you ever danced with anyone before?" Blonde asks. Clem didn't, there wasn't much to time for any kind of dances or something like that in the metro, even if she could dance when she was alone because she wouldn't in front of anyone back then, she didn't have time, she always put everything else before her. 

"Nope." Clem responds with a slight chuckle. 

"Do you.. Wanna?" Violet asks and offers her hand. "Just us. No one else around. I mean, I know it's kind of weird, but it's something I've always wanted to try." Violet explains and Clem doesn't even resist, she just takes Violet's hand. Clem puts her hands on Violet's hips and Violet puts her on Clementine's waist. Clementine's heart started to beat so fast and she couldn't understand why she also couldn't understand she looked away from Violet's slightly smiling face just for a second just to start looking at it again with an even bigger smile it continued on for a couple more minutes. Violet hugs Clementine and closes her eyes, Clem hugs her back not even thinking about it. "Thanks for the dance." She says after pulling away, Clem smiles again. 

"Yeah, we're getting better at being romantic." Clementine replies, Violet smiles a little too. 

"Yeah." Violet responds. Violet lets one her arm hang as the other grabs it by the elbow, Clem is just standing there, it suddenly is very quiet and tense, Clem doesn't know what's she supposed to do, she wishes someone would go through the doors and interrupt them as it maybe would give her something to do or maybe somehow made the tension lower. "So, huh, what now?" Violet asks first, Clem wanted to ask the same thing even if she's aware that blonde wouldn't know and she's also sure that blonde knows that Clem doesn't know either. 

"I don't have a clue, if you wouldn't show up I'd be sleeping by now but I won't throw you out unless you want to go." Clementine starts to rant, she's nervous, she still can't understand why, she gets less nervous in a fight. Her heart beats faster whenever she looks at Violet but Clem can also see that Violet is nervous too, probably even more than the brunette. 

"We can do anything we want, right?" Violet assumes, Clem nods and an idea pops up in her hand, she almost forgot about all of her nervousness, she took Violet by the hand and dragged her to the bedroom. When they walk inside Clem takes off her boots and quickly lays down, leaving Violet standing and not knowing what to do. 

"I want to sleep but I don't want you to go, so if it's alright with you, we can sleep together." Clementine explains, she starts to feel nervous again, she doesn't want to push Violet to do something she doesn't want to, but now Clem can't help herself but be impatient she really wants Violet to sleep with her. "If you want to, of course." 

Violet doesn't say anything, she just starts to untie her boots and not an entire minute later she lays down next to Clementine she feels the heat radiating from brunette just when she laid down and after Clem wrapped her arms around Violet's waist she felt like she was boiling but could be just her. "Uh, I'm sorry." Clem apologizes when she feels that blonde is tensed under her touch, blonde quickly shakes her head and returns Clementine's arms back to their place now she's more relaxed after she got used to the feeling, warmth, safety, affection she feels under brunette's touch is almost undescribable and Violet is sure she wants brunette to hold her like this for as long as they can allow themselves. 

"Vi?" Violet just hums when she hears her girlfriend, Clementine feels even more nervous than before, than ever before, she knows that she may be too soon to tell blonde what she really feels. "I know it may be too soon to tell it, but I mean it, I love you, Vi." Clementine admits through all of her nervousness, she hopes that even if blonde isn't feeling the same now then it won't change anything between them, Clem sees blonde turning and she already gets ready for the worst but what she didn't expect blonde to do is that she'll kiss Clem, more passionately than any other of their kisses. 

"I love you too." Violet says after they pull away, she watches Clem process the information for a quick second brunette didn't know what to say but she decided that in that situation actions are better than words, she kisses Violet, the kiss shows all the love, affection, everything they feel for each other. After they pull way Violet turns on the other side and Clem wraps her arms around blonde again but now being far more confident about it. Violet after feeling Clementine embracing her again she shifts even closer to brunette her body is pressed to brunette's, to the feelings of warmth, safety and affection blonde also starts to feel something that was there from the beginning. Love.


	13. Clementine/Dina

Everyone for Jackson it would be considered a normal patrol, but for Clementine, it was far more, not only she was on patrol with Dina, her girlfriend since not that long, Ellie and Joel are with them too, it wasn't usual to be in that large groups for patrols it is usually pairs being a part of a larger group but the last patrol spotted infected in the area and that how Clem ended with all three of them, for brunette it was a perfect company for patrol, she trusts them with her life, hell, she'd give her life for those people only if it'd meant they'd still be alive. And patrols for Clementine were something more than just making sure that Jackson will be safe, for Clem it was a reminder of what is outside walls of Jackson, the dangerous world that will kill you if you lose focus for just one moment, she wishes that Lee could be there too but after his arm had to be cut off a couple of years ago, when they were still traveling with Joel and Ellie trying to look for a cure, Clem could only wish he could be there too even if she knows that he's happy with sitting in Jackson being a teacher. "What are you thinking about?" Brunette hears Dina asks, Clem turns her head towards the source of the voice and sees Dina looking at her with a smile plastered on her face, a smile that she loved and would give everything just to see it. 

"This and that. Well, mostly how lucky am I that I don't have to deal with some trigger-happy idiots, and then I have to say the bad news to their families." Clementine admits, there were two accidents like this that kids, barely old enough to go on patrols, shot a bandit or infected too fast or when they weren't even supposed to shot them and it ended with a fight that usually ends with someone dead, she hates losing people. 

"Yeah... We're not that older than they are. But we're smarter than them." Dina cheers brunette up making her smile and look back in front of her, they were in a neighborhood that had a huge house at the end of the street. 

"I wouldn't say so, kid." Joel chimes in, Clem smirks but her vision is focused on the huge house, on one of her other patrols a pack of infected were inside of a house like that and she wants to know if she'll spot something in it. 

"Oh really Joel? If I remember correctly I'm usually in charge of patrols teams." Clem retorts playfully still looking at the house. Brunette is right, it wasn't unusual to see Clementine leading a pack of people that usually were older than her and it bothered some of older members that a kid was leading older people Clem worked for the trust of people around Jackson as well as Ellie, they're both treated as one of best fighters Jackson has but there are still people that don't like it. 

"Okay, you're an exception." Joel chuckles and again focuses his eyes on the road and houses that are on both sides of the road, Ellie doing the same. Clementine looks at some of the windows on the first floor and saw a figure running in the building. 

"Someone's inside that house." Clem says now in a very serious tone and pointed at the house she was looking at, she's sure she saw someone but she couldn't tell if it was a human or an infected. "Get off your horses." She commands, her team follows her command and after making sure that horses are tied to a fence of one of the houses they started heading towards the house Clem pointed. 

"You're sure?" Ellie asks, Clem turns her head to a taller girl and nods. "Fuck..." She mutters under her breath after getting an answer. 

"Stay calm." Clem tells her, she knows Ellie is aware that she can't panic but it was some time when they saw an infected or a person that close to Jackson and she can't help but feel a little uneasy too. 

They all had rifles in their hands, the closer they got the bigger the uneasy feeling grew in Clementine, she's sure it'll end badly. Right before the doors, Clem stopped, her team following, and stopped with her. "Ellie, you and Joel will check the first and second floor, I and Dina will check the basement. Be safe everyone." She commands, she doesn't even know if there's a basement in there but she's pretty sure there is. Ellie opened the doors and all four of them walked inside the building. After entering they quickly looked around if someone was waiting for them, felling a bit of relief when no one was waiting at the entry Clem and Dina went to look for the door leading to the basement while Ellie and Joel were checking the first floor. 

"Clem, I found it." Dina whispers to the girl, Clem approaches her quickly and sees stairs leading down, she nods at the girl, both of them slowly gets down the stairs, carefully stepping to prevent wooden stairs from creaking. When they were facing the doors Dina placed her hands on the handle, Clem nods lightly at the girl signing to open the door, her heart was beating quickly, she doesn't know what to expect on the other side of the door, maybe it's some survivor or maybe there's a whole pack of infected on the other side but it may as well be empty and Clem would have to admit it was her imagination playing games with her. Dina swiftly opened the door and walked in first, Clem right after her. The basement looks empty, many boxes with god knows what, Clem's heart started to slow down, both she and Dina went further into the basement, after reaching a point where they weren't seeing a thing Clem whispered to Dina to wait a second so she can pull a flashlight out. After Clementine pulled the flashlight out and turned it on she saw in corner of her eye a silhouette standing in corner of the basement, fear runs down her when she sees that someone is pointing a rifle at them, at Dina to be exact and is about to pull the trigger. 

Clementine knows she doesn't have much time, not even a second probably, she won't be able to put the flashlight back raise her rifle and shot whoever is in the basement, Dina didn't see that person yet so there's no hope in that, Clementine's body just goes into action without thinking and throws itself front of Dina, trying to protect the girl from a bullet and in the same time she dropped her flashlight and grabbed her own rifle then started to aim at the attacker, she and whoever was in the corner shot in the same time almost the same time brunette a little later, Clementine felt something enter her body but she was sure she hit the person she was aiming at since she heard a yelp in pain. Then she fell on her back and started to heavily breathe, she started to apply the pressure on the wound in her stomach, Dina was standing not even knowing what just happened, after a not entire second she grabs the flashlights and looks for the brunette and finds her not entire five seconds later. "Oh my god!" She quickly kneels next to the brunette and feels like her heart stops when she sees crimson red on Clementine's clothes and her hand. "Why did you do that?!" Dina asks with anger in her voice, Clem just got shot so she wouldn't. 

"I didn't want you to get hurt." Clem replies with a weak smile, she doesn't regret what she just did, even if she knows it might probably kill her. A not entire minute later they hear loud steps on the stairs after that they see Ellie and Joel entering the basement, rifles propped against their shoulders, ready to shoot. 

"What the hell's goin' on?!" Joel asks with a raised voice, he sees Dina holding a flashlight, and when he sees Clementine applying pressure against a wound he and Ellie rush to them. 

"Help me get her upstairs, we need to stop the bleeding and get her to Jackson, Ellie go get the horses." Dina commands, she quickly calmed herself down, she knew that panicking won't help them, she should be thanking Clementine for reminding her to take some medical supplies in case something goes wrong. Ellie rushed outside the house, and Joel helped Dina settle Clementine on the couch in the living room, from what Joel was telling the rest of house is safe, they just hope that whoever Clem shot in the basement doesn't have many friends outside the house. Dina quickly takes off her backpack and unpacks everything she needs on the table standing in front of the couch and quickly gets to work. She can't lose Clementine, not like that. 

It was some time before Dina finished her work, in the meantime Ellie was back, horses were waiting for them in front of the house, and Ellie quickly went to calm Joel down, she knew it reminded him of Sarah, he treated both her and Clementine as his daughters and she couldn't even think what was going through his head when he saw Clementine being shot almost in the same spot as Sarah but at least now they had someone who could take care of brunette immediately. Dina went to the room next to the living room when Joel and Ellie were waiting, Ellie convinced Joel to leave the room, it was hurting Ellie to see Clementine in that state and she couldn't even think what Joel was feeling. Right as she got inside the room she felt two impatient gazes on her. "And?" 

"She's alive, barely, fucker shot her good, I don't know if anything is damaged and I can't determine it here, we need to get her to Jackson and cold won't help us." It was middle of winter, harsh winter, they had to hurry if they won't Clem won't die of the wound but because of cold and that would be even worse, Dina blames herself, she thinks she should be more careful, they knew someone might be inside. "We need to go now. Ellie help me get her on my horse, Joel you lead her horse and take her stuff." She tells them, both of them nod, Dina spots the grim look on Joel's face and she can't help but feel a similar feeling, a fear of losing a loved one. 

They were on their way back to Jackson in not entire five minutes, Clem's arms loosely wrapped around Dina, Dina knows that Clem might die if they won't hurry so they're riding as fast as they possibly can with her wound Clem still may die especially that Dina didn't have anything to clean the wound with. "You know what?" Dina hears Clem whisper, brunette feels the light breath against her neck as Clem is laying on her shoulder. 

"What?" Dina whispers back, one of her hands is laying on Clementine's hands trying to give the girl some comfort even if Dina knows that Clem doesn't need she still feels the urge to do so. 

"Before I spotted that fuck in that window I was thinking that I'd gladly give my life for you, Ellie, or Joel, fuck it, for everyone I consider family, I didn't know it might actually happen but I have no regrets." Clem says in so weak and quiet voice it makes Dina just more and more worried. 

"You won't die, I won't let that happen." Dina reassures, she feels Clem lightly nodding against her shoulder, Dina tries her best to keep Clem warm she even made her wore jacket she was wearing but it wasn't helping much. "We need to hurry." Dina tells Joel and Ellie, they nod and start riding on horses even faster it was on edge of hurting Clementine with the speed of their horses. 

About two hours later they saw the gates, Clem was barely conscious but Joel was keeping her awake by talking to her through the whole ride reminding her of all the things that happened before they arrived in Jackson and after, how they met, Dina never heard it and found out it was when he and Ellie were running away from military in Boston and then they met Lee and Clem doing the same, or how they defended the dam, Clem was far more mature than she should be at her age then and she was talking to Tommy too with Joel when Lee and Ellie were with Maria, or how they argued about Joel wanting to leave Ellie after all they've been through. "Finally, Clem, we're here." Dina says and slightly shifts her shoulder to catch Clementine's attention after not getting a response for a short while she turns back and feels like her heart stopped again just when she realized what happened in that basement, Clem had her eyes closed but for Dina's light relief she still felt really weak and short breaths on her neck. "Shit, quick!" Dina hurries her companions once more and now they don't care how fast they're riding, they have to get Clementine help as soon as possible, Dina can't let her die for her sake as well as Ellie's, Joel's, and Lee's. 

As soon as they reached the gates it was quickly opened and Dina carried Clem off the horse before someone with stretcher approached them, she didn't care for the horse and ran with people holding the stretcher, Ellie and Joel doing the same, Dina could see Lee corner of her eyes but she didn't care, she was too focused on brunette laying on the stretcher, her face so pale she could be easily mistaken for dead already but Dina saw some minimal movement in Clementine's chest but it didn't give her even the half relief she felt when she felt breathing against her neck just a couple of minutes ago, she saw scared shitless and she couldn't do anything about it since she's sure that they won't let her help with Clementine. 

As they reached the infirmary they were stopped by doctors telling them they have it from there, Dina, Ellie, and Joel tried to go inside but they couldn't, well Joel looked like he could kill them but Ellie managed to convince him to let them do their work. "It's all my fault..." Dina mutters out, it just now hit her what happened, she was so caught up in getting Clementine back to safety that she entirely forgot what happened in that basement. 

"It's not." Ellie assures. 

"No, it is, we were in that basement, Clem took out the flashlight, turned it on and saw someone in the corner aiming at me and instead of shooting him or whoever the fuck it was, she stood in front of me first, then aimed and shot, she got shot instead of me." Dina says in a quiet voice, she backs away from the doors separating them from Clementine and doctors, sat down at first chair she saw, and grabbed her head. "It's all my fucking fault." She repeated. She heard the voice of Lee, he sounded scared, Dina's not surprised but she also hears Joel explaining to him what happened, he was sort of relieved knowing Clementine is in good hands but fear was still inside him, even if he won't admit it. 

"If it helps, I'd do the same for Kat." Ellie says like she and Clem are similar, sure they're girlfriends but they didn't tell anybody yet, they just want to enjoy each other for some time without anyone snooping around. Dina turns her head to Ellie and she had a knowing smirk on her face. 

"What the hell do you mean?" Dina asks with frustration in her voice, it was usually Ellie getting mad at brunette first but now the roles were reversed. 

"Oh don't even start, I saw you and Clem kiss when I visited your house last week." Ellie confronts Dina with it straight on, Ellie visited them as they couldn't see each other for over two weeks because of all the work around Jackson, but since they still didn't tell anyone about their relationship they couldn't show affection with Ellie around so Dina caught Clem in the kitchen when she was kitchen, both of them didn't even notice Ellie when she wanted to ask for something to drink. "I didn't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about." 

"I'm worried that Clem might die because I was too slow." Dina admits, she's on edge of crying, she never shows that kind of emotions in public and she tries her damn best to not make this situation an exception. 

"Go to your house, change, leave yours and Clementine's stuff there, take a shower if you want, it'll be some time before they'll end." Ellie suggests, Dina shakes her head, she will wait as long as she has to and as soon as they will be done with Clementine Dina wants to take her back home, even if Clem will be still unconscious Dina knows how to take care of brunette so doctors will probably agree, at least she hopes so, she knows she can't stay at infirmary waiting for Clem to wake up and she doesn't want to leave her. 

"Okay... Give me your stuff, Clem's and keys to your house, I'll take it there, change and come back here, okay?" Ellie asks, she never saw brunette in that state and she never thought she will, Dina just nodded and hand hers and Clementine's backpack to Ellie. "I will be back soon." 

Dina was left with all her thought, everything that happened in the basement on her own, she didn't mind, she liked to deal with her problems alone but what she wouldn't give for having Clem to help her with it, sure she could try and kill time with Joel but they all seem lost in their own thoughts and she doesn't want to interrupt them, so she stays quiet and tries to think of other things but fails miserably, she can't help but think what would happen if she'd be a little more careful, or if she'd at least spot the person in the corner before Clem and would be able to take a shot, but she also knows that it's not exactly her fault either, Clem could always just push Dina to the side and shot their attacker but she knows that still could end up in brunette getting hurt, she just wishes she could think of something she could do in that basement that would avoid getting her or Clementine hurt so she could tell it to Clem but she just can't no matter how hard she tries. 

Ellie came back about ten minutes later in other clothes and with Kat she seemed worried too about Clem, they briefly talked before again being silent, waiting for doctors to tell them if Clementine will survive or not. The wait was so agonizingly long even if they had to wait about an hour and a half for Dina it was at least four times longer, constant thinking of what she could possibly do to prevent Clementine from getting hurt and she still didn't see any way, no matter how she looked at what happened in the basement. When the doctors walked out the look of hope that Dina had made doctor smile at her slightly and she knew him and he wasn't known from smiling much. "She survived. Only two of you can see her now, she's still unconscious and I'm not sure when she'll wake up but at least nothing was damaged." Doctor said the good news and Dina felt all the anxiety leave her body, she smiled so wide in relief and quickly approached the doctor to talk to him. 

"I have a favor." Dina says, her confidence was back again. Doctor urged her to continue since he 'has no time'. "I'd want to take her to my home, you know, she'd wake up in a familiar place, I could take care of her, you know I'll manage." Dina asks him, he looks at her for a second as if checking if she can really handle it. 

"Sure, I'll send someone with stretchers but carry her on your own, I need my staff here, and you owe me." He says to her and her smile gets even wider as she gets back to the rest, she sees that Lee already went to the room in which Clem is. 

"Ellie, I need your help with something." She tells and Ellie immediately turns her head towards brunette waiting for her to say what she needs. "I convinced the doctor to let me get her home today, now even, I just need to wait for them to carry stretchers here." Dina explains, Ellie just simply agrees. After waiting for ten minutes Lee walked out, stretches were already waiting but they just needed Lee to walk out from the room, they didn't want to ruin the moment, and Dina promised Joel to give him some time too but at hers and Clementine's house. 

"We carrying her somewhere?" Lee asks when he sees stretchers lying in front of Dina and brunette nods eagerly before picking stretchers up with Ellie, walking in the Clem's room and walking out with Clementine on them, they had to put her clothes on so she won't get cold and so it won't look weird. 

"We're taking her to my place, closer for everyone and doctor agreed." Dina explains to them, she doesn't wait for them and immediately starts heading towards her house, she's relieved that doctor allowed her to carry Clem back home she doesn't imagine living there without brunette. Everyone that was waiting with Dina for doctors to tell them what's going on with Clementine was going with to her house apart from Kat, Dina doesn't mind but she isn't sure how Joel, or Lee might react for Dina carrying Clem to Dina's room, when brunette was moving from Lee Dina assured them she has her own room, it was a lie, Clem moved not long after they got together but they couldn't just say to Lee that they're together, especially when he doesn't really like Dina. 

"To your room?" Ellie asks when they got upstairs, the rest stayed downstairs since Dina asked them to she half expected Lee to still follow them but he didn't and that's good, Dina doesn't have the energy to explain to him why they're carrying her to Dina's room and they couldn't just lie it was Clementine's room because of Dina's things being all around the room and Clem isn't good at keeping their room clean either but she always has her clothes putten away. 

"Yeah. I just hope that Lee won't find out." Dina mutters the last part to herself, she's aware that Ellie probably heard it but she ignores it. 

"He doesn't like you?" Ellie asks even if she knows and saying that he doesn't like her is an understatement, he won't admit it but he hates her, she could almost feel his stare when she offered Clementine moving to her house. 

"I'm pretty sure he'd take her back home if he would find out that she took that bullet for me, I'm glad that Joel didn't mention it. If you think that Joel's overprotective of you and Clem you don't know Lee." Dina chuckles, he always sees her off when she goes on patrols and almost always waits for her to come back by the stables, Lee knows Clementine for far longer than Joel but Lee's very overprotective. 

"You think she'd agree?" Ellie asks after they reached the bedroom and placed Clem on the bed. Dina shrugs, she isn't sure if Clementine would leave her just because Lee doesn't like her. 

"I'm not sure, I don't even know why he hates me so much, I never did anything to him from what Clem said he always wants her to be on high alert like something might and will happen the moment she loses focus, okay, I understand when she's outside Jackson but she doesn't have to fear anything inside it. Even Joel is far more relaxed." Dina answers, they both start to head downstairs and left stretchers laying by stairs, Joel offered he'll take it back to the infirmary after he'll go back. 

They got inside the living room where Joel, and Lee were waiting. After Dina sat down in armchair she could again feel Lee's gaze on her. "After she wakes up, I'm taking her back to my house." He says and Dina now glares back at him, she usually just avoids Lee not because she wants to but because Clem told her to, normally she'd tell Lee to just back off and leave her be, Lee was the reason of their first argument too, and it wasn't even two days since Clem moved in. 

"You will what?" She asks him with a surprised voice, she didn't expect that, at least not that quickly. He takes a deep breath and scratches his beard before exactly repeating himself. "Over my dead body." She didn't even think before replying and how the sole venom in her voice would most people back away. After she realized what she said she scolded herself knowing that Clementine won't like it brunette tried to make Dina and Lee get along and failed every time. 

"So be it." Ellie and Joel were now sitting quietly too afraid to get involved in it. 

"Try it, you'll just lose another arm." She threatens him, she doesn't want to lose Clem just because Lee doesn't like her. "I never did anything to you, neither to Clementine, why do you hate me so much?" Dina asks, now she doesn't really care because he overdid himself a couple of minutes ago, but she still wants to know. 

"Since she got to know you she was far more distracted whenever you were around her she was somewhere else, she can't do something like that, it'll get her killed, you'll get her killed." Dina felt her blood boil at this point, Clementine was different in this manner she's always calm, someone might take her rage out on her she'll still be calm and even help with whatever trouble that person has and Dina has to admit that she did it once and she regrets it. 

"Uh Lee-" Before Joel could end speaking Dina cut him off. 

"I have enough of this, Lee get the fuck out before I'll throw you out myself." She says, she's glaring at him and he glares back. Both Ellie and Joel are ready to take action if they'll actually start fighting. 

"What?" 

"You fuckin' heard me, get the fuck out." Dina says right to his face, he doesn't say anything for a while he stood up and walked outside the house, Dina sighed in relief, she didn't want to fight with Lee and if he wouldn't start she wouldn't fight back. "Joel, if you want to check on Clem, she's in my room." She doesn't even care, he nods and stands up then heads upstairs leaving Ellie and Dina alone. 

"Did you ever try to get along with him?" Ellie asks and immediately regrets it when she sees the glare that Dina sends her. 

"Of course I did. A couple of times in this month and most of it just because Clem asked me to." Dina answers honestly, Clementine tried to somehow make Lee and Dina at least tolerate each other but it always failed and not only from Lee's fault but from Dina's too. 

"Don't be too harsh on him either, he had his arm chopped off by cannibals so I think it's normal he doesn't trust anyone that quickly, shit, I think he only trusts me, Joel, and Clem, no one else." Ellie tells, Clem did tell her about that but never really mentioned what happened to her, Ellie, and Joel at that time, she just told to not worry about it but Dina saw that Ellie and Clem aren't the same in winter they're usually far more closed off and wary of anything that happens around them, the only time where they aren't like that is when either Joel or Lee are close, or for Clementine when Dina's close and for Ellie when Kat's close. 

"Well... After my threat, it might be quite impossible to even try and straighten things with him." Dina mutters out, she didn't meet a person that hated her so much as Lee does. 

Not long after Joel was back and sat back in the armchair, they didn't talk at all but after a couple of minutes both Ellie and Joel had to go to their houses, Dina wouldn't mind company but she can't make them to stay so she just saw them off. Brunette quickly took her jacket off, she didn't realize she still has it on and took both her backpack and Clem's to their room. Before throwing any of the backpacks in any place of the room since Dina doesn't really care to clear the room since she has no energy for it, she looks at Clem and smiles a little before deciding to leave backpacks in front of the bed. She looks at the bed and then thinks she should take shower first even if the bed looks so welcoming she still decides to go and take a shower. Almost half an hour later she's back in the room in fresh set of clothes and now without thinking she lays down on the bed and pulls the cover over herself and Clementine and gets close to the brunette as close as she can but far enough to not hurt her by accident in sleep. 

A barely hearable knock on the entry doors wakes Dina up, she doesn't know what hour it is, she knew that it was starting to get dark when she was going to sleep and the sun wasn't fully set yet but the knocking wouldn't let her sleep so she tried getting up but someone was lightly holding her and Dina immediately knew it was Clementine, she looked at the other brunette and smiled, she looked so calm and Dina had an idea to kiss Clementine on the forehead but before she could even try to lean in she heard the knocking got far louder, she groaned lightly, got free of Clementine's grip, dress up and started to head downstairs. She was down in not entire two minutes and opened the door to see Tommy that was about to knock again. "Hello. What is it?" Dina asks, her voice still sleepy, she let the man inside and closed the door behind him. 

"I just wanted to hear what happened yesterday, I heard it from both Ellie and Joel but you were there when Clementine got shot and I want to know what you saw." Tommy explains. "Oh, and I found this on the door." He hands her a folded piece of paper, Dina just puts it in her pocket, she'll check it later. 

"Well, Clem was taking out the flashlight, turned it on, she saw someone aiming at us, at me to be exact, stood in front of me and she got shot but she managed to shoot him too." Dina tells him quickly, she still feels guilty for Clementine getting shot. Before Tommy says anything more they both get to the living room and sit on the couch. 

"Do you think it could be a Seraphite?" Tommy says with a quiet voice, Clementine and Ellie killed most of the Serapthites after they killed a huge part of patrols, everyone tried to keep them away from it but they still did it everyone in Jackson remembers the state in which Clem and Ellie got back, all beaten up, tired, both of them didn't talk to anyone but themselves for a week, even Joel and Lee didn't manage to talk to them, but if they're still a threat to Jackson... Dina doesn't even want to imagine what Ellie and Clem will do especially now looking at the relationship between Dina and Clementine brunette knows that Clementine will do everything to keep Dina safe. 

"I don't know... Shit. I didn't get a good look at him, what if it's them and they regained their strength?" Dina asks even if she knows that Tommy doesn't know the answer to this question, no one does. 

"I'll take a small team and check it out, don't tell anyone about this, Maria will kill me if she finds out as well as Clementine and Ellie." Tommy states, Dina nods, she won't tell anyone, at least for now. 

"Okay, but if it'll be a Seraphite we will need to tell Clementine or Ellie, they know them the best of whole Jackson." Dina says, it's stupid to say to tell it to Clem and Ellie but they're the only ones to have some actual information on Seraphites. 

"Damn. Let's just hope it was some survivor that tried to kill the wrong person, god please let it be some survivor." Tommy mutters out before getting up. Dina walked with Tommy to the doors and wished him good luck on his trip, she herself trying to keep her mind of Tommy's suspicions took out the paper he gave her earlier and started to read it. 

Content of letter surprised Dina, it was Lee's, he wrote that he apologizes for his overreaction yesterday and that he wants to try again and get along with Dina, she smiled lightly at this, she took her jacket, walked out, closed the door and started to head towards Lee's house with hope in her mind to finally succeed in getting along with man. She was there quickly and knocked on the door lightly, Lee should be up already and he didn't start work yet, at least Dina thinks so she isn't sure what hour it is but Jackson's streets are more empty than usual. He opens the door soon after and Dina greeted him with a smile, he let her inside. "So you want to straighten things up?" She asks and shows him the letter he nods slightly and sighs. 

"Yeah. I mean, I don't know you, not really, and I know that Clementine won't move out so I might as well try right?" Lee says with a chuckle, Dina keeps her smile but she herself isn't even sure if it's an honest one or not. They both move to the living room, Dina doesn't sit but Lee does. "I have to get to school in a while but when Clem wakes up I could make dinner and you both would come here." Lee offers, Dina shakes her head lightly, she doesn't want to tire Clem out by leading her to Lee's house, not in that winter. 

"Dinner sounds nice, sure, but not here, I don't know if Clementine will have enough strength to get here with all the snow so I'll make dinner and at my place." Dina says and Lee nods, she can't imagine how Lee would do a dinner with one hand. Dina isn't sure how it'll end but she hopes it'll work this time she knows that Clem will be relieved knowing she won't have to make sure that Dina and Lee won't argue. Dina got outside Lee's house as fast as she got inside, one of not many conversations between them that didn't end with argument. 

Dina quickly got back to her house, as far as she's aware she doesn't have any work in Jackson today so she doesn't have to worry about that. As soon as she got inside the house she heard some steps upstairs, she got upstairs and saw Clementine stumbling out of the room and almost collapsing if not for Dina catching her and immediately hugging her after, she wasn't even sure if she should scold her for leaving the room or say to never scare her like that again. "I forgot how much getting shot hurts." Clem mumbles out, she's still weakened so Dina leads her back to the room and asks why she left it. "I thought that you're downstairs and I wanted to surprise you." 

"You surprised me when you got shot instead of me! You know how stupid it was?" Dina scolds her, she's still mad at Clem for taking that bullet. 

"Yes, I know, but you're the only one that knew how to patch someone up good enough for them to get back to Jackson." Clem tries to explain even if she's aware that Dina knows it's not true. 

"Don't lie to me." 

"Okay. From both of us, I far more preferred me getting shot than you." Clementine admits and tried to avoid Dina's gaze. 

"Well, I'm blaming myself since I could spot that fucker faster." Dina says. she sees that Clem immediately ignored her tries to avoid Dina's gaze and shook her head. 

"Don't. I got in front of you from my own choice." Clementine retorts and Dina shrugs. Before Dina could argue further she felt Clem pulling her towards herself and putting an arm around her shoulders and Dina felt a sort of safety she only feels with Clementine around. "I'm not letting anyone die if I can prevent it, whatever I do is to protect someone, when I fought Seraphites? I did it to protect the whole Jackson. When I took that bullet for you? I did that to protect you, you think I didn't think when I stepped in front of you? I did and every option I saw ended in you getting shot and I couldn't let that happen." 

"What the hell did I do to deserve you?" Dina asks herself in a whisper after putting her head on brunette's shoulder but Clementine hears it. 

"For example, patching me up after I got back from getting rid of Seraphites, or helping to make my life at least slightly normal instead of constant fear of death behind every corner and since when you ask yourself that kind of questions?" Clementine says slightly in joking manner 

"Fuck off." Dina frowns and Clementine laugh. 

"Nah, I can barely walk." Clementine replies. "Did you and Lee argue again?" Clem asks, she's sure that Lee was in the house after she got to Jackson. 

"Yeah... But we'll try to straighten things up... Again." Dina tells, Clementine doesn't like the sound of that considering how the last try looked 

"Oh boy. How?" Clementine asks amused, she never expected Dina to try to do it again after so many failed tries. 

"So we'll have dinner in our house, us and him, fingers crossed I get to stab him with a fork." Dina says with a slight laugh that gets followed by Clementine's own laugh. 

"Now that wouldn't be good, shit, if I have to stop you two from fighting AGAIN I ain't letting you get near each other." Clem states, she doesn't have a single desire to do it again. 

"Don't worry, I'll try my best." Dina promises and hears Clementine sigh. 

"I heard that one before." 

"Do you want me to go get someone and let them know you're awake?" Dina asks, she's aware that people will want to know that brunette's awake since it'll bring morale up knowing that one of their best fighters awake. Clementine looks outside the window and thinks about the question for a quick while before lying down and pulling Dina to her again. 

"It's still early and I don't want Joel, Ellie, Lee and probably Kat pitying me for next week, they can wait." Clementine answers after Dina placed her head on the brunette's shoulder. Dina felt a kiss on top of her head, she smiled lightly before shifting closer to Clementine she was cautious to not place anything on Clementine's stomach in fear of hurting the brunette. 

"Ellie knows about us." Dina admits, her eyes closed to much focused on Clementine's warmth to even hear that Clementine isn't surprised. 

"I know. She told me a week ago." Clementine replies, her eyes are closed too. 

"You didn't tell me?" 

"I don't care who knows about us, actually, I intend on telling Lee about us on that dinner." Clementine tells her. 

Now Dina is sure that either her or Lee will be stabbed with something.


	14. Clementine/Ellie

Ellie looks through the scope of her rifle and focuses on a brunette sneaking her way through a camp full of some bandits, no one knew who they are and from where they are but they attacked a couple of Jackson's patrols as well as the team that was supposed to contact another settlement and Ellie was a part of that team. When Clementine found out that Ellie's team got attacked by them she just informed Tommy she'll take care of them, Tommy agreed but only if she'll take anyone to help her so Clementine took Ellie. If there's one thing Clementine didn't expect is that bandits will be so close to Jackson, the settlement might even hear echos of shooting if it'll come to this. Ellie wasn't hurt when bandits attacked but others were and one person died before reaching Jackson, Ellie blamed herself for a while that she didn't manage to help him but both Clementine and Joel managed to convince her it wasn't her fault. 

She doesn't know what she was thinking letting Clementine go inside the camp alone, sure she got her back but Ellie can't be sure what will happen and Clementine deciding to go in the night isn't making things easier, sure bandits have set up some torches so they can see something in there but it's not enough for Ellie to see much. She watched Clementine cover one of bandits mouth to stop him from alarming his companions before stabbing him in the neck and letting his limp body hit the ground, Ellie already knows that Clementine will feel down for a couple of days. If there's one thing Ellie learned about Clementine in five years is that she's always feeling like that when she kills someone no matter who it is and only Ellie knows about this, Clem hides it well from others but not from Ellie. 

When Ellie moves her head away from the scope to have a look on the whole camp she spots lights coming from the woods surrounding the camp and as soon as she saw that she pointed her rifle in the direction of the lights and saw four more men getting closer and closer to the camp and they can see it so they're probably bandits too. Panic slowly started to rise in Ellie's body even more than it was a couple of minutes ago, she pointed her rifle back to the camp and search for the brunette and she couldn't saw her, it wasn't going good, not at all. 

She looked around the camp for a couple of minutes and she couldn't spot the brunette and bandits from the woods were getting close to the camp and to make things even worse they would go inside the camp same way Clementine did and they will spot the bodies and Ellie needs to get at least a couple of them before they can take cover. As she nervously changes the place where she aims from the bandits getting inside the camp and back she sees bandit falling dead an arrow sticking out of his head, she looks around the bodies and spots the brunette it makes Ellie calm down just a little but she still has to let Clementine know a couple more bandits are heading inside the camp. "Clem?" She asks in a whisper through a radio. She sees Clementine reaching for her radio before hearing a quiet response. 

"Yeah?" 

"There's another four of them coming, they'll notice the bodies." She informs the brunette. 

"Damn... When they reach the camp shoot them, I'll take cover in the meantime." Clementine commands, Ellie wants to argue but she knows it will be to no avail, so she gets a proper grip on the rifle, leans on the stock of it, and aims at head of one of the bandits and waits for them to get inside the camp. Just as one of them spotted the bodies Ellie pressed the trigger making a huge hole in one of bandits head, she quickly pulled the lock before aiming at another bandit, she managed to be fast enough to let her kill one bandit more before they started to shot at her position, she moved back before any of the bandits could hit her. She hid behind a tree as she heard more shots hitting the place she was at a couple of minutes ago, she crouched down before leaning out from her cover, she aimed at the other bandits and pulled the trigger again, what caught her eye was that Clementine was helping from shadows with her bow, she saw at least two additional bodies with arrows in them. 

When Ellie leaned out again a bullet hit the tree she was hiding behind, small pieces of wood hitting her face she leaned back before any bullet reached her. "Fuck." She curses under her breath, she looks behind the tree to see five more bandits and they're getting closer and closer to her, Ellie doesn't even know how they didn't spot Clem, maybe they were too caught up in getting Ellie. She quickly lets go of her rifle and it loosely hangs on her back as she takes her pistol out of the holster. Ellie took in a couple of deep breaths before leaning out as quickly as she can and started to shot at the first person she saw and quickly leaned back, she could hear bandits cursing at her. Ellie could hear the steps being so close to her that she's sure she might improvise. She hears more shots, definitely not from bandits, she hears something fall next to her and she sees a bandit with two holes in his back struggling to take another breath before giving up. She used that opportunity to lean again but now from the other side of the tree, but when she did she didn't see any bandits just Clementine. Brunette ran up to Ellie. "You're alright?" Clementine asks, Ellie nods as she tries to control her breathing. 

"What about you?" 

"I'm fine." Ellie could already hear Clementine's voice a little dark and not caring. "Come on, we need to get out of here before infected will get here." There shouldn't be many infected that close to Jackson but there's always one or two around, patrols usually take them out in the day if they spot one. Pair quickly starts to get back to their horses and then back to Jackson, it shouldn't be twenty minutes before they get there. "You think they could be planning on attacking Jackson?" Clementine asks, Ellie thinks about that question, they were close enough to think that way but there weren't many of them and they were poorly armed, no way they could even think of attacking Jackson, maybe they were attacking patrols in hope for some better equipment. 

"Doubt it, there was far too little of them to even think of attacking Jackson, maybe they were trying to get some equipment from patrols." Ellie states she can't think of any other reason for attacking Jackson's patrols. 

"Or there's an even bigger group of them somewhere in the woods..." That was another thing that Clementine had in common, always thinking of worst possible outcomes, sometimes Ellie thinks Joel is more positive than Clem is. 

"Some patrol would've spotted them by now, don't worry so much." Ellie assures, she doesn't want Clem to worry, she knows that brunette isn't sleeping so well and now that Ellie's sure that Clem won't be her cherry usual her and that she might be worrying about some bandits and that will make brunette's sleep even rarer, Ellie has a weird need of making sure Clementine will get some good night sleep. "How are you feeling?" 

"What do you think?" Clementine shots back with an emotionless voice, Ellie knows that Clem hates killing even if she and Ellie are both best warriors she tries to avoid killing as much as possible but what confuses Ellie is that Clem started to feel that way about killing right after they left the hospital in Saint's Mary's Hospital, Ellie knows what happened and she still sort of hates Clem and Joel for doing this but after some time she realized that she'd do exactly the same in their place. "I'm sorry it's just..." 

"I know, don't worry." Ellie says and sends a sincere smile in Clementine's way and brunette sends one back but to Ellie, it didn't feel honest. Ellie hates seeing Clementine like that, she usually looked similar after longer patrols but it was from fatigue not from killing a person, the brunette doesn't mind killing infected. And Ellie's feelings for Clementine isn't making it any easier, it's making it harder, she talked with Joel about it a couple of years ago, not long after getting to Jackson but he didn't help in helping Ellie figure out her feeling it took her longer than she thought as she understood them about a month ago with Dina's help. 

Aftre reaching Jackson pair returned horses to stables as well as their weapons to the armory where Tommy was waiting for them, Ellie gave him an explanation of what happened when Clementine waited outside, Ellie had a somewhat better idea of what happened since she had the look on the whole camp for quite some time. "So it went almost perfectly?" He asked as Ellie explained how they got spotted, she nodded at his question. "Okay. Go to your home, you and Clementine deserve some rest." 

"Sure. See you later." Ellie says before getting out of the armory. She looks around in search of brunette and she spots her sitting on one of the benches, her hands shaking and her eyes clenched shut. Ellie carefully gets closer to Clem trying not to scare her and when she was close enough she slowly put her hand on Clementine's shoulder as gently as she possibly could and it still startled Clem a little. "You're okay?" 

"Yeah... Let's just go home." Clem responds and gets up, Ellie still sees that Clementine's hands are shaking not as much as a couple of minutes ago. They start to head towards their house, they moved out of Joel's about a year ago, as soon as Ellie was eighteen, but still, visit him as often as possible. Ellie doesn't believe that Clementine is okay and she's also sure it has something to do with what they were doing about an hour ago. Right after they got to the house Clem immediately headed towards her bedroom not even eating anything or at least taking a shower which surprises Ellie since she saw some blood on Clementine's face. Ellie after taking a shower was now laying in her own bed and her head as close to the wall as possible because Clementine's room is on the other side, she hears some pacing around the room and then some quiet swearing but Ellie couldn't exactly understand what Clementine was saying exactly. Ellie after listening for Clementine pacing for over ten minutes thought she has to do something or Clementine won't go to sleep and it'll result in Ellie not sleeping either so she got up from the bed and knocked on Clementine's door she knew that Clementine won't answer so she just walked in. 

"Get in the bed." Ellie commanded, Clem looked at her with a startled look, she opened her mouth to argue but Ellie just repeated herself and brunette complied. Ellie climbed in bed behind the brunette and was laying next to her. 

"You're not helping." Ellie hears Clementine mutter, Ellie knows she isn't helping much but she thought that maybe her presence will calm Clementine just a little, maybe just enough to get at least some sleep. Ellie turned on her side to look at Clem but the brunette was turned so Ellie was seeing her back. 

"Then what the hell can I do to help you? I hate seeing you like this and I don't know what I can do." Ellie asks with an annoyed voice, she didn't mean to come out so harsh but it did make Clem shift on her other side, not for long though as when she saw Ellie she stood up from the bed. 

"How? I don't think there's a way to help me, you remember what you said to me after you found out what happened in that damned hospital?" Ellie then remembers what she said, she accused both Joel and Clem of taking that choice away from her, it's true, but Ellie knows she'd do the same and felt like shit for not even admitting it and now she feels even worse imagining what Clementine and Joel had to go through after saying that. "I killed so many people just to save you... Since then I see their faces when I kill someone, not the people that I kill but fireflies' faces, it is why I'm so miserable after killing anyone I still have nightmares about what happened and after what you said... The whole time you didn't talk to me and Joel I thought you hate my guts, and you should." Clementine says, Ellie looks at her with a surprised look, she didn't think that this whole thing affected brunette that much. Clementine was looking at Ellie she was looking outside the window whole time trying to avoid Ellie's gaze. 

"I tried hating you and Joel." Ellie admits, that makes Clementine look at her but brunette's face wasn't showing a single emotion. "But the longer I thought about what happened the more I understood that I'd do exactly the same thing if you or Joel were on my place, you might think you did the wrong thing but if I had to choose to lose you and letting thousands of people I don't know and don't care about live or letting you live but letting those people die... I'd choose you, no matter the consequences." Clementine looks even more surprised than Ellie was a minute or two ago, honestly, she thought that Ellie hates her, and she keeps her around just not to hurt her. 

"Really?" 

"Most honest thing I said in couple of years." Ellie confirms the question, Clementine looks at her for a while longer trying to see if Ellie's lying or not. After a minute of the intense gaze brunette laid in bed with Ellie and in comparison to any other time when she was with Ellie, she didn't feel scared but safe. After getting used to someone laying in bed with her Clementine closed her eyes and slowly started to drift away to sleep. 

After waiting for a couple of minutes when Ellie thought that Clem was asleep she shifted closer and kissed Clementine on the temple. "I won't let anyone hurt you." She whispered the promise after pulling away from Clementine she laid on her back now trying to fall asleep too but she panicked when she felt Clementine shift in her direction in fear of having to face Clem after what Ellie did she pretends to be asleep by now but she feels a pair of lips on her cheek for a short while before feeling Clementine shift back to how she laying a second ago. Ellie looked at Clementine with one eye opened and saw that Clementine is laying just like she was before but now her breathing was far quicker and Ellie, after thinking about it for a while, wrapped her hands around Clementine's waist and pulled her close to herself, she felt butterflies in her stomach after feeling the heat of Clementine's body beam against her own but she already loved the feeling of having Clem so close to her. After a couple of seconds of making sure brunette won't mind Ellie holding her, she falls asleep with a wide smile plastered on her face.


	15. Clementine/Violet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fallout AU (Fallout 4 to be exact) it's not canon in any means to fallout 4 so don't even try to compare it.

Sanctuary Hills, Clementine's home for last six months, well over four months since she got outside Vault 111, two months since she and Nora managed to make Institute, Minuteman, and Brotherhood of Steel have a treaty and fight as one, it was hard, hardest task Clementine ever had to do, Railroad didn't agree on terms and are rebelling against three other factions they went against their ideals when a woman named Lilly took over the faction. They started to use synths as mindless soldiers whereas Institute, Minutemen, and Brotherhood of Steel started to treat them like humans, of course in Brotherhood of Steel was hardest to convince that they aren't just some mindless filth of Commonwealth but living creatures and it was on Clementine's shoulders to convince them when Nora was convincing Institute to do the same and for Institute to start focusing on making synths actual human that age, need sleeping, eating, and drinking and somehow they succeded but it happened not even an entire month ago so there isn't many of them but they transferred synth Shaun memories to a synth that looks exactly the same but is as human as possible. Minutemen didn't need much to convince them. Three united factions are now fighting Railroad but since they signed their treaty Minutemen, Brotherhood of Steel as well as Institute started to quickly grow, with Brotherhood's military force, Institute's knowledge, and Minutemen's spirit there was almost no force that could stop them. People joined them, Brotherhood started to get synths inside Brotherhood ranks only as recruits and initiates but it was still a huge step forward for the treaty, the only exception of synth that's higher in ranks is Paladin Danse he was so thankful for it that he is usually to be found in Sanctuary Hills commanding a small team that repels bandits, super mutants, or even Railroad's attacks on Sanctuary but with all the defenses Nora's and Clementine's scavenging provided settlement doesn't even need half of the force they have and they'd still repel attacks with ease. Institute started to use synths like scientists that can do the same thing people can do, they're allowed to have feelings, hell, there's even a couple marriages, only in Minutemen, that consists of synth and human. 

With all the people around her, Clem felt lonely. She was the only 'sixteen years old' sure she was over two hundred years old but no one counts since she was in cryo-pod for most of it. Sure there are a couple of kids but they're too young for her to even try and become 'normal' friends, sure, she talks with them, sometimes even play with them but she can't have the same connection she'd have with other people her age, she could walk to Diamond City there are a couple of people her age but all of them are even bigger assholes than bandits are, they act like they're entitled to everything, one of them even tried to give some caps for Clem to have sex with him, she punched the fucker in the face and if not for Diamond City's security she'd kill him with her bare fists. Right now Nora was back at the institute helping some courser that gets constantly attacked by Railroad trying to get the chip inside his head and right now it was on Clementine to command Sanctuary it's no easy job but she manages. Brunette looks on the open bottle of whiskey standing on the countertop in the kitchen and it's late in the night so no one will want anything from her right now so she stands up and heads towards the kitchen picks up a glass and fills it with whiskey. Clementine takes a small sip of her drink letting, alcohol burning the back of her throat. Just as she was to take another sip someone knocked on her door, she sighed loudly, took one sip more, and headed towards the door leaving the glass behind thinking she'll get back to it in a minute. Clem before opening the door hears some raised voices outside her house, when she opened the door she saw Danse in his power armor. "Oh boy." She murmurs under her breath Clementine already knows that if Danse is in his power armor it means that someone's attacking their settlement again. "Bandits?" 

"Yes. But now they have hostages, they threaten that they will shoot them if they won't talk to the person in charge." His voice sounds through the speaker, she nods. Clementine closes the door after commanding Danse to tell bandits to wait for a second, she ran to her garage where she holds all of her equipment, she quickly puts on her combat armor without the helmet and a hunting rifle along with some ammo. She runs out the garage and heads to main gates, a couple of knights already on top of it, she quickly gets up the stairs and stands in front of all soldiers. She looks down on the group of people under her, she sees a couple of bandits holding a couple of kids around her age if not older they don't look hurt in any way or broken, a blonde tries to struggle against bandit's grip but he's stronger than her and she has no chance to succeed. 

"Finally someone in charge!" One of them yells, probably the leader. 

"Yes. Tell us what do you want." She commands him already making the leader look weaker, he clears his throat awkwardly before answering. 

"All of your food, water, supplies, everything..." He gets quieter at the last part as he weirdly eyes Clementine, she tightens the grip on her rifle. She sees a smirk forming on his lips. "I have a better idea, you get down here so we can get a better look at you, hm?" He offers, she knows that if they capture her she won't end well but for now it's the only way to she sees to help those kids. She turns to Danse. 

"Open the gates, I'll talk to them and stall them, you send two of your quickest men to attack from the back on my sign." She tells him, he nods a little and commands his people to do what she told while the brunette gets down. She waits a minute for gates to open, she hears two pairs of heavy footsteps behind her sprinting trying to get where they need to be as fast as possible. As the gates open she steps out, lights are turned on the bandits, at least twelve of them, she makes eye contact with the leader showing determination in her eyes. "So? And don't do anything stupid, it'll end badly for you." She advises and he laughs they probably never fought Brotherhood of Steel. She stands on the edge of the lights so she's visible and fear runs over some of bandits faces when they see Clementine's insignia on her armor it's Brotherhood of Steel, Institute, and Minutemen insignias connected by her and only she wears it as no faction consider themselves as one big faction. The fear is caused because not many people are aware of the treaty, sure, there are rumors but nothing's confirmed, not even Piper knows about it, and most people are afraid of what three factions can do together. 

"We're supposed to be scared of four people?" He laughs again trying to encourage his people and it seems to work, Clem smirks. 

"Yes. Four people, in full power armor and with laser rifles all modified to be one of the best rifles in whole Commonwealth against what? Some pipe rifles and pistols." Clementine informs them and fear is back again on their faces, she sees two people in power armor not far from bandits showing her a thumb up meaning they're ready to attack. "How about this, you let those kids go, and maybe I'll let you live another day, seems like a fair trade to me." She offers them confidence written on her face she dealt with worse. 

"Do it." Bandits say to their leader they slowly back away if they have to run, the leader seems a little torn about what to do, he looks at the people holding kids and nods, they release them. 

"Come to me and stand behind me." She commands the group of kids, they obey. She aims her rifle at the people and starts backing up kids do the same, when she's behind the gates she lowers her rifle. "Open fire." She hears lasers rifle shooting from up and in front of her. She sees bandits fall dead they couldn't even raise their guns, some scared screams from behind her can be heard. "It's okay. Nothing will happen to you. Any of you hungry?" She asks them, some of them nod but most of them are still terrified by what just happened. She gestures them to follow and they do it, as she goes away she hears someone in power armor running behind them not long after she sees Danse that already took his helmet off. "Good job. We'll send some people to burn the bodies tomorrow." She tells him with some sort of pride in her voice, she's proud because she saved those kids. She leads the small group to a huge building filled with tables, a kitchen, and a couple of bedrooms upstairs, it's a sort of community center together with a couple of smaller apartments. She told them to sit at the large table when she asked Codsworth to bring some food for them and Nuka-Cola for herself. "So, uh, sorry for the rough welcome." She says after seeing how uncomfortable people around the table are. 

"Well, you did save us from them. But why'd you kill them, aren't you afraid there's more of them?" A blonde asks, Clem shrugs, she dealt with far bigger groups herself. 

"If I'd let them go they'd just kidnap other people or gather even more people, better equipment and attack us again, we weren't lucky since most people were asleep so it went worse than expected." Clementine explains as she sees it, sure, they didn't have to do what she said but they were a threat to defenseless people and she couldn't let something happen to someone because she let them go. 

"You're acting like it's some daily routine to you." A boy with dark skin and dreads says. Clementine looks at them with some sort of intrigue in eyes, most people in Commonwealth knows who she is or at least heard of her. 

"You're not from around here are you?" She asks them, all of them shakes their heads. "Damn, been some time since I talked to someone from not around here... Name's Clementine by the way." She introduces herself and they introduce themself to her. 

"So it IS your daily routine yes?" Louis asks, Clementine smiles and nods a little. 

"Sort of, I had rest from it for the past week or two but usually that's what I do." 

Codsworth brought food and Nuka-Cola a couple of seconds after they said from where they are, their old group lived in a boarding school and left them when they were old enough to fend for themselves, it kind of reminds Clem of MacCready's story but they were just hidden enough so no one could find them, from what they told them Marlon is leading them. "So Marlon, as the leader, what's your plan?" She wants to try and offer them staying here, they interest Clementine every one in their own way. 

"No, no, no. We told them he led us, but not anymore." Sophie corrects, Clem raises her eyebrows and looks at Marlon expecting some kind of explanation but he seems too embarrassed to say anything. 

"He basically tried to sell us to bandits, if not for a Yao Guai he would succeed." Minerva says, she now glares at Marlon, she isn't so sure if she wants to keep him around but she isn't sure if the rest will stay if Clementine will throw him out and that way she'd throw away a chance to have people her age and she could always tell someone to keep an eye on him. 

"So who's leading all of you?" 

"That would be me." Violet says with shyness in her voice, she's the person that intrigues brunette the most because of her attitude to everyone, not only to Clem. 

"Since when?" Mitch asks with a kind of anger in his voice. Clem just looks as blonde starts to glare at him. 

"Since no one else stepped the fuck up." She retorts with a sort of tiredness in her voice, Clementine can see that she's the one taking care of the group but no one appreciates it. 

"Okay before anyone starts fighting, what's your plan Violet?" Blonde looks away from Mitch and her looks softens a little when she looked at Brunette. Clementine felt a weird warmness inside of her when that happened, nothing like this happened to her but the feeling disappeared as quickly as it appeared or at least brunette started to ignore it because Clem was focused on what blonde was saying. 

"I don't know, I looked for an opportunity to get away from those bandits didn't plan much further." She admits again with shyness in her voice, brunette might want to ask about that whole shy thing late. 

"Well, you're welcome to stay here, we don't need people since most of the settlement is self-sustainable but we could use some help with crops from time to time." She offers her as she takes another sip of her drink. 

"And what do we get in return?" Ruby asks and Clem looks at her like she's stupid, she offers them a place to calmly sleep at night, being protected by actual soldiers, a little to no work to do and she wants to get more? "I'm kiddin'... I'm kiddin'." She quickly explains when she notices the glare brunette gave her. 

"So?" She asks Violet specifically, she wants to help her look more as a leader to her people. 

"I mean, we don't have a place to stay... So I guess we could stay here for some time." Violet replies and Clementine nods in agreement ending her drink and gets up gesturing for them to do the same. They're back on the street and Clementine tells that if there are any couples or if there's anyone comfortable living together then they can live together since they don't have many free houses. By the end, it was only her and Violet and they strolled through the main street trying to find an empty house and Clem knew there isn't any but she wanted to get to know blonde a little more so she just talked with her. "So this is all your work? This settlement?" Violet asks with curiosity in her voice, Clem looks around her she's proud she was one of two people that made this place what it is today but she can't just tell it's all her work. 

"No, there's one more person that is in charge here too, her name's Nora, she's... Working." Clem hesitates on her last word not wanting to tell Violet Nora's in Institute, she doesn't know if she trusts them yet, sure, it's nice to talk with someone her age for once but it doesn't mean they intentions are friendly, from all she knows they might be even worse than assholes from Diamond City that are grateful for saving them. 

"But still, I can see you're doing so much work, I thought that I had much to deal with but my problems are nothing compared with yours." Violet praises, Clem smiles a little at her as the same weird warmth spreads in her again, she feels weird around Violet but good kind of weird. 

"Depends how we look at it, sure I have more people to take care of, all the attacks here but you, on the other hand, have ungrateful people that don't or don't want to see your hard work." Clementine says as she looks at Violet, the brunette could swear she saw pink cover Violet's cheeks but because of the darkness around them she can't be sure of it. 

"Thanks... For earlier I mean." 

"Don't mention it, you and all of your people want to stay here is far enough for me, you don't even know how long it was since I talked to someone my age that isn't acting like a complete ass." Clementine tells with a light chuckle. 

"What do you mean?" Violet asks with intrigue in her voice. Clementine sighs a little before saying what that kid in Diamond City offered her. "It's normal for people around here to be complete assholes?" Violet asks with some sort of disgust in her voice which makes Clementine chuckle again. 

"You have no idea." She says. They reach the end of the street and since there isn't any free house to offer and Violet probably won't believe if Clem will say she forgot about one house or something and Clementine wants to meet blonde even more so she gets a great idea. "Well... There isn't any free house, not right now at least. And my house has two bedrooms, so I offer you living in my place, for now at least." She offers, her voice is shy, something that never happened to her too. Violet looks a little surprised by her offer but she nods a little. 

"Sure. Lead the way." 

It was almost two weeks since Clementine took Violet's group in, they met Nora and for now they're living in Sanctuary and Violet is still with Clementine in one house even if she could get to another but she stayed because she valued the time she was spending with brunette because brunette was tough on the outside but after one week when Clementine got drunk a little Violet witnessed the broken side of Clementine, Violet found out that Clementine is over two hundred years old and that for over six months she barely talked with anyone about her problems that just kept piling up, her parents dead, her sibling dead, and she survived only because of overlook from Institute's side and many others. That night was also the first time Violet had to comfort someone. Right now Clementine was out hunting for bandits because Violet's worries checked out and bandits they killed had much more friends around and they attacked one settlement that Clementine was helping, no one died but they took a lot of food and supplies and they destroyed some of the constructions as well, brunette already sent someone to help with the rebuild. Brunette went five days ago and they still didn't come back and Violet was slightly worried about her since she told she'd be back in three days at most but at least Violet managed to convince her to take someone with her since she wanted to go alone, MacCready went with her. 

Brunette smiles weakly as she sees the lights of the main gate. "How are you feeling kid?" MacCready asks Clementine, she shrugs. She got shot a couple of times, and if not for the support and help to patch brunette up of nearby Brotherhood of Steel squad she'd be dead by now, there were far more bandits she expected and she's grateful to Violet she listened and took MacCready. But at least the bandits won't cause any more problems. 

"Not that well... But we're almost there." She says, she's weak, she lost a lot of blood but she had to get back to Sanctuary she insisted she has to get there, she doesn't want Violet to worry and she just wants to get to bed and sleep. She starts walking slower and slower and MacCready sees it, he puts her arm around his shoulders and helps her walk a little faster and she mutters a quiet thanks. 

"You helped me, seems normal I'd help you." He mentions They're right in front of the gates and they open it as soon as people on it see them. Someone rushes down the metal stairs and helps MacCready with Clementine, she tries to walk on her own but they insist on helping her, she can barely stand on her feet. They help her only to the doors of her house, she tells them that she'll be fine and they carefully let go of her and she leans on the door to keep herself from falling and tells them to go. She opens the door and stumbles inside, trips, and falls. 

A loud thud scares Violet and she jumps on the couch, she looks in the direction of the front door and sees just Clementine laying on the floor trying to get up with all the power she got left. Violet rushes to her and helps her get up and immediately helps her to brunette's bedroom, it was the first time she was there and Violet was honestly surprised with how clean it is, there are a couple of posters hand-made by brunette covering the walls, the bed is neatly made and it's huge enough for at least three people, blonde lays brunette down as carefully as she possibly can, rushes out the room for water to at least clean Clementine, her face is in blood, hairs sticking to her face because of the blood, her knuckles bruised and stained with dry blood, Violet can already see it was no easy task dealing with the bandits, she's honestly surprised Clementine's still alive. 

When Violet gets back to the room with clean water she sees Clementine trying to pull her armor off herself, Violet tells her to stop and helps her with it. "What happened to you?" She asks, Violet saw Clementine fight a couple of times and she never got hurt in any of them she's curious what had to happen brunette's hurt now 

"Got shot, beaten... If not for Brotherhood of Steel I'd be dead and it is my fault I'm in this state looking that I thought I had to get here risking that my wounds will reopen." Clementine admits, Violet sighs as she cleans girl's fists. 

"Then you should've stayed there, we'd be okay, Nora is here so you don't have to worry about anything, why'd you come back?" Violet asks with frustration in her voice, sure she was worried as hell but she prefers Clementine being alive and somewhere else than dead and here. Clementine has people around her that can take care of her responsibilities when she's unable to do them but she keeps insisting on doing them no matter what. Clementine wondered if she should tell blonde truth, that she wanted to come back so Violet won't worry about her, Clem doesn't know what she feels about blonde anymore, they fast became close friends but brunette's mind was craving for something more than just friendship and even if Violet might feel the same Clementine won't admit her feelings because, in her opinion, she doesn't deserve the blonde that she's too broken and she'd be just a burden for Violet. 

"We have what we need to patch me up here, I didn't want to use their resources." Clementine lies, almost all of Brotherhood members know about the treaty so they know her too since she argued with Maxson whole night that synths aren't just some dumb machines and she was the only person that wasn't afraid to shout at the elder. "And besides, there isn't a person that would care if I'd die." 

"Don't talk like that, you helped everyone here they should care. And even if they wouldn't, I definitely would." Violet says as she gently grabs Clementine's hand sending waves of warmth throughout Clementine's body as blonde cleans brunette's knuckles. Clementine's heart flutters, no one ever said something like that to her, not since she got outside the vault. 

"Thank you, Vi. You don't even know how much that means to me." Violet just has a shy smile on her face as she focuses on cleaning the brunette's hands. Clementine smiles too, not only because Violet cares about her but just that mere contact of blonde's hand on brunette's. After a not entire minute of Violet cleaning one hand she moved to the other one. 

After Violet was done she was still holding brunette's hand for a couple of long seconds before giving Clementine a gently squeeze on it. "Get some sleep, ok?" She asks, brunette nods, she doesn't remember last time she was so tired and weak but she fought it just to hold Violet's hand, even if just for a couple of additional seconds. When Violet let go of Clementine's hand brunette internally whined, she wanted to hold Violet's hand all the time, the softness of it, and how perfectly brunette's hand fits in Violet's. Violet poured a little more water on a small piece of cloth she cleaned brunette's knuckles with, stood up and carefully washed all the dried blood on Clementine's face with pink dust covering her cheeks while Clementine was blushing so hard that she was too embarrassed to even think how she looks right now. When Violet was done she smiled lightly and headed to exit the room shutting the lights off. "Goodnight Clem." Blonde said before closing the door. 

Another week has passed, Clementine was walking slowly and only if someone helped her or with the use of crutches but she didn't leave her house, she didn't want anyone to see her that weak apart from Violet. And Violet never left her side whenever she could, sure sometimes she had to do some work around the settlement but right after she went straight to brunette which became a reason of Louis' and Minnie's teasing, they were aware of that Violet likes Clementine but blonde doesn't want to say anything about her feelings because she felt like she doesn't deserve Clementine at least that's her opinion. 

Violet jumped up from her bed from her sleep when she heard something fell in the kitchen, she quickly got up and went to the kitchen to check what happened. When she opened the door she heard some quiet cursing, Clementine's cursing. She saw brunette trying to pull herself up from the floor but she still didn't have enough strength to do it, so Violet quickly helped her up. "What happened?" Violet asks with sleepiness and hoarseness in her voice. 

"Uh, I went to the fridge and slipped." Clementine explains with embarrassment in her voice. Violet's eye caught Clementine taking a piece of paper with something written on it in her hand and crumpling it but she decides to not say anything about it. 

"I thought I told you that if you wanted something you can tell me." Violet sighs, she heads to the fridge and opens it, she's still amazed by all the work Clementine managed to do with Nora, electricity in all of the houses, working fridges, showers with hot water, nothing she was used to on the road but she knows that it took a lot of work from both Clem and Nora to make it happen. "What do you want?" 

"Nuka-cola." Clementine says and Violet giggles at that, she almost always sees Clementine drink it, at all times whenever she's not working or doing anything. "What?" 

"Nothing, nothing. It's just I always see you with it. You like it so much or what?" Violet asks as she hands Clementine the drink. 

"I like having something in my hands, I focus on whatever I hold is it a bottle or a gun, it sometimes helps me forget my problems... But recently I found a new way to forget them..." Clementine didn't mean to say the last part out loud because it's Violet who helps her forget about her problems, just her being with brunette helps they don't even need to talk. 

"And that is?" Violet asks with curiosity in her voice. Clem doesn't say anything for a while as she takes a sip. 

"It's a secret." She says with a cocky smile and Violet pouts earning a giggle from Clem before smiling herself. "Someday, I'll tell you." Clementine promises and Violet nods. 

"Better faster than later since I then can help you achieve it as often as possible." Violet states and Clem smiles, if only Violet knew what, or rather who, it is. Their pleasant silence was interrupted by a loud knock on the door, Clem moved to the doors with the help of Violet. When Clementine opened the door her mouth opened in surprise, Nora and elder Maxson were standing in front of her and Clem wasn't surprised with Nora but with Maxson. 

"Can we come in?" Nora asks and Clem immediately nods, she gets out of the way so the two can get inside. Clementine tells Violet to go to her room, she didn't want her to hear anything about the treaty and fortunately, Violet nodded and went away, Clem was the suspicious look on her face. 

"I didn't expect to see you elder." Clementine admits as she sits down on the couch, she can't stand too long without crutches that are in her room or without someone helping her she just hopes she'll get back on her feet soon, she has enough of sitting in the house alone when Violet's working. 

"I got here to check on my squad and on you, I heard what happened to you and you're a great soldier, it would be a waste if we'd lose you." Elder says but Clementine can sense he isn't telling everything and she's also sure Nora knows what this is about." 

"And? I might not be in a state to fight but I'm alive and you know that Danse can keep his people as safe as possible, so why bother?" Clementine asks with determination in her voice, Maxson glares at her she's still the only person that ever dared to talk to him like that and he respects her for it but it doesn't mean he likes it. 

"I was thinking we should tell Commonwealth about our treaty, starting in Diamond City, gather you, me, Nora, a couple of synths, a couple of knights and couple of minutemen." Maxson explains, Clementine immediately thinks it's stupid it's the only advantage they have on Railroad and they have people in Diamond City so they'll find out about as soon as they will tell the truth. 

"It's stupid, Railroad will find out and they will be able to somehow turn this against us so the people will join them and I'm in no state to even stand for longer than a couple of minutes on my own. I say we wait until I recover and we defeat Railroad." Clementine tells him her worries, Nora supports her in this. 

"True, but if we would do it we could send synths, minutemen, and Brotherhood together making it easier to fight and we could also start with spreading out influence on other settlements so not only Sanctuary will have it so good." Maxson says. 

"No. We don't have the people to protect so many settlements and if we defeat the Railroad and THEN tell about the treaty people will join us in hope of having a normal and safe life and thanks to that we will have the people to protect the settlements as well as people to get rid of bandits in the area. That's my last word." Clementine argues, Maxson nods as well as Nora they seem to understand her reasons to worry. 

"We can wait, but we have to defeat Railroad as soon as possible it takes a lot of resources to fight them off like that, we need to find them as soon as possible." Nora explains even if she doesn't have to, Clementine and Maxson know what happens after fights with Railroad, they always surprise them and always someone gets killed or wounded. 

Clementine sighs thinking what they can do to find Railroad and then she gasps as she recalls the talk of a Diamond City security guard talking about some Freedom Trail, it might lead to their base or maybe at least it'll give them an idea where it is. "Give me a month, I'll recover, gather supplies, and find them." She tells them. Maxson agrees and Nora asks if she's sure of it and that she'll help if brunette wants to and Clem refuses. 

"A month. Okay, I'll start to get people ready to attack them when you'll find them." Maxson says and walks out, Nora sends a look of worry on Clementine before walking out too. Clementine breaths out with relief and tells Violet she can get back. Violet gets inside the living room and sits next to Clementine with the same suspicious look on her face. 

"What was this about?" Blonde asks Clementine, brunette hesitates. She trusts Violet with her life but if she says it to someone, even on an accident, they'll have many troubles. Clementine sighs, she can't hide it longer, and if she would just lie it wasn't important that could make Violet believe Clem doesn't trust her and brunette doesn't want that to happen. 

"You have to promise me you won't tell that to anyone, no one, because not only you'll be in trouble but I will be too and many people could die because of it." Clementine asks Violet to promise and blonde does just that, Clem really hopes blonde won't break her word. "I lead minutemen, Nora leads Institute you probably heard some rumors about them, and that man was elder Maxson of Brotherhood of Steel. We have a treaty that me and Nora negotiated, I negotiated with Brotherhood and Minutemen and Nora with the rest of Institute, we work together now but Railroad is our enemy, they kill our people and get synths and people on their side telling lies about us, from what I heard they kidnap people and brainwash them so they'll fight for them and then they tell it was Institute who kidnapped them because before Nora was leading them they were kidnapping people, they killed her husband and took her child that was their previous leader." Clementine says quickly and quietly so no one outside will hear them, Violet just nods wanting brunette to keep going. "Maxson wanted to tell others about our treaty but Railroad will turn this against us too, we need to defeat them first and we don't know where their base is, so I agreed to find it. I have one month." Violet now seems furious and the brunette isn't surprised she knew Violet won't like this. 

"You can barely STAND on your own and you want to find some dangerous fucks base on your OWN?! Fuck that, I care too much about you to let you go." Violet gets up and runs her hand through her hair a couple of times trying to figure out what she can do or say to make Clementine stay and let someone else go. Clementine stands up too but she does that a little too fast and almost falls but somehow manages to keep her balance. 

"I have a month Vi, I'll be fine, I just need a week to be back on my feet, get supplies, and find them. Nothing difficult." Clementine tries to calm Violet down and it doesn't work as Violet looks at her with a sort of frustration in her eyes and Clementine can't understand why Violet's frustrated. 

"That's what you said when you went after those bandits 'nothing difficult' you came back half-dead and you think I'll let you go? Hell no." Violet argues with a raised voice, Clementine's now angry at blonde too she thinks that blonde has no right to tell her what's she's supposed to do. 

"You have no fucking right to tell me what to do! Why do you care so much?!" Clementine shouts, she didn't mean to it's not usual for her to lose her cool. Violet looks Clementine in the eyes with fire in them, the brunette was expecting for blonde to walk out and come back when she'll be calm or maybe don't come back at all, and if that happened Clem wouldn't forgive herself for wasting her only shot at having a life with someone. What brunette wasn't expecting was to Violet wrap one hand around Clementine's and pull her in a kiss, brunette was surprised at first and didn't know what to do but after a second Clementine kissed back and wrapped her arms around the blonde, butterflies in her stomach exploded and her heart was beating so fast she couldn't hear anything apart from it. Violet was pulling more weight on herself to make sure Clementine won't fall or stumble. But it was soon over but Violet didn't pull back completely just her lips then she presses her forehead against Clementine's still with closed eyes brunette's eyes are closed too. 

"That's why." Violet whispers, her hot breath hitting Clementine's lips sending shivers down her spine. Clementine thinks about what should she do, Violet wants her to stay but she promised elder she'll take care of it and it would be stupid to break her word but she wants to keep Violet with her and her saying she has to go might ruin it. 

"Listen. We'll wait a week, if I'll be able to walk and fight I'll take a couple of people to help me and if not... I'll send Danse and his team, we will be able to defend ourselves and they should handle it." Clementine offers, Violet's quiet but she doesn't pull away or move. Clementine give her another quick kiss to reassure her she wasn't sure if it will work but at least she felt Violet's soft lips on hers again. 

"Okay." Violet reluctantly agrees and pulls back even if both she and Clem doesn't want to but they can't just keep standing like that. "But promise me you'll be careful." 

"Always am. Not my fault trouble keeps finding me." Clementine says with a confident smirk which makes Violet rolls her eyes. For the rest of the day Violet and Clementine were on the couch, Clementine laying on the couch, and Violet played with her dark curls gently she heard Clementine hum some melody under her nose and she listened to it with a small smile on her face. For the first time in her life Clementine felt wanted by someone, she felt like she doesn't cause any problems and actually makes someone feel wanted too. The later it got the more sleepy Clementine and Violet got it was late, really late and they were sitting in the dark because none of them wanted to get up and lose the warmth of the other one but Violet knew it might be uncomfortable to sleep like this so she got up earning a whine from Clementine but before brunette could start getting up too Violet picked her up startling brunette but she didn't object she just wrapped her hands around Violet's neck. When they reached Clementine's bedroom Clem kicked her boots off before Violet put her on the bed but before the blonde could leave Clementine pulled her so she'll lay with her and blonde did that without complaining after taking her boots off too. "I could get used to you carrying me around." Clem mutters as Violet lays down, she expects some reply but she only feels blonde's arms wrap around her waist and pull her as close as possible and Clem lets that happen as she wanted to ask Violet to do it, it's the first time she ever sleeps with someone in one bed, it didn't happen before or after the bombs fell and Clementine's happy with Violet being the first person. 

"Well. You still have problems with walking around and it's way faster to carry you around and you're light so it's not a problem. Oh, and that's another thing we change, you start eating more, I know you don't eat enough, Curie told me that." Violet commands and Clem just hums, but she likes someone actually commanding her to do something with herself she likes that Violet is brave enough to tell her she has to eat more, that she can't just go alone on suicide missions. 

"Can I be honest with you?" Clem asks, she fells Violet slightly nod against her head. "You're the first person to ever told me to do something with myself and to stop doing missions that qualify as suicidal alone and I'm pretty sure that sooner or later I'd die because of my stubbornness and that makes you the person that saved my life." 

"I'm glad." Is Violet's response. Clementine tries to shift even closer to Violet wanting to be as close to blonde as possible, to know that blonde isn't moving and that she won't leave her. 

Week later Clementine was back to her usual form and even better than that since she kept her word and started to eat more thanks to Violet she looks more energic and alive, Violet likes seeing her like that, but that also meant that Clementine had to go look for Railroad's base and she went just a couple of hours ago and blonde already missed her it was unusually quiet in the house, no music, nothing that could stop Violet from thinking what Clementine's doing now. Brunette went with Cait, MacCready, Danse and his team and they're supposed to pick up Piper and Valentine in Diamond City where they're supposed to restock on the supplies, blonde doesn't know them but she trusts that everyone else that brunette took will keep her safe or at least as safe as possible. As Violet was losing herself in her thoughts she heard doors opened, she focused on listening to footsteps in hopes it was Clementine but footsteps were far too heavy for it and there are two pairs of footsteps. "There she is!" Violet hears Louis' annoying voice and she groans as soon as she hears it, looking at him she sees Minnie following him but at least she's quiet. 

"Let's think... I live here and I don't have any work today to do, where could I be?" Violet says with sarcasm in her voice. Louis and Minnie sit on the couch. "What the hell you two want?" She asks as she gets back from the kitchen sitting on the armchair in the living room. 

"Oh nothing. Just to talk about your crush on Clementine." Minnie says with teasing voice and Violet huffs but they could be right, it still might classify just as crush since blonde didn't talk with Clementine about what they are. 

"Erm, fuck off? I'm a fucking adult, I can take care of myself." Violet retorts, Louis laughs as well as Minnie but Violet isn't laughing, just glaring at them with hopes that they'll leave her alone if she glares at them for long enough, she already can't wait for Clementine to come back just because Louis and Minnie are afraid of her. 

"Bullshit. And don't even try to argue you don't like her since I'm pretty sure you'd pay her everything you have just for her to sit on you." Minnie argues and Violet shrugs trying her best to ignore their teasing. 

"Okay, I like her and before you even FUCKING start, I know she likes me too." Violet says back and catches both Minnie and Louis off the guard. 

"Then make a move?" Louis tries to advise but he's even more confused when he notices a confident smirk on Violet's face. 

"We were sure Aasim likes you too and how it went?" 

"Ey, it worked in the end." Louis defends himself but ignores the fact that both he and Aasim were drunk as fuck when Louis kissed Aasim and Violet doesn't even want to imagine what happened after. 

"Whatever you say. But who says I didn't make a move?" Violet retorts. Minnie and Louis both laugh at her words. 

"You? Make a move without us pushing you? HA. Even if something happened it was Clementine to make the first move." Louis teases and Violet smirks again. 

"Well, I did, believe it or not." Violet argues. Minnie and Louis stand up at that and gets out of the house. 

"We'll ask Clementine when she gets back, bye!" Louis shouts before she hears the door close and she sighs out with relief knowing she doesn't have to deal with Louis for now at least. 

Clementine, on the other hand, is on the road with all the people she took trying to reach Diamond City as quickly as possible and this one time she feels safe on the road knowing that if something happens she won't have to face it alone or with one person. Only Danse and his team have power armor it might be stupid if they actually find Railroad's base since there will be many synths and people defending it. Clementine hears heavy footsteps getting close to her, she's on the front of the team. "Do you even know how long it will take for us to find them?" She hears Danse's voice through a speaker and she shrugs, she doesn't know that but at least she knows where to start, Boston Common, she heard about it not that long ago in Diamond City. From what she knows it's the beginning of the Freedom Trail. 

"Nope. But we have to find them in about three weeks." Clementine informs him, she's aware she told them all the details they have to know but she likes to make sure people remember what's important. 

"Okay, so we get to Diamond City and then? Do we even know where to start looking?" He asks and Clementine nods. 

"Yes, we follow the Freedom Trail, and with luck, we find their base or at least something that will tell us where it is." Clementine tells. He nods and slows down the pace again to get back to his original position, they should be in Diamond City in a couple of hours to rest a little, get supplies and take Piper and Valentine with them if they will want to help them. As the hours went by without any problems apart from one Yao Guai that was killed before it could even reach anyone from the team, right now they were walking inside the city and shops will close any minute so brunette told the others to restock on ammo and medical supplies while she went to Piper and Valentine. She enters Publick Occurrences first. 

"Damn! Have you heard of knocking?" Piper shouts startled by Clementine's presence. "Good to see you." She says after she calmed down. 

"You too. And yes I heard of knocking but I have no time, I may need your help." Clementine says and Piper hears her out and she immediately agrees after hearing they're trying to find Railroad's base. "I wouldn't be so eager to go there." 

"You remember when everyone was scared of Institute kidnapping people?" Piper asks and Clementine nods, it was hard to get by an hour in the city to not hear about that. "Well, Institute stopped thanks to Blue but now Railroad kidnaps people and replaces them with their synths because some people know too much, someone has to put an end to this. And I think you're just the right person." That explains why Clementine still heard of kidnappings, she thought it may be some of the older cases but apparently no. "Someone else comes with?" 

"Well, I have MacCready, Cait, Danse and his team, I was supposed to pick you up and Valentine if he wants to help." She tells her, she nods and gets her gear before telling her sister where she goes, Nat just says her goodbye and both Clementine and Piper gets outside. "Go buy some ammo and supplies." Clementine tells her and she wanders off to the market while Clementine heads to the alley leading to Valentine's office. 

Clementine got inside of the office and saw Valentine sitting at his desk looking at some files, probably cases he's taking care of. "Oh, Clementine, you need help with something?" He asks when he spots her, she nods before sitting in front of the desk. 

"Yes, I'm going after Railroad's base." She goes straight to the point, Valentine stares at her for a couple of seconds checking if she lies. 

"Well, I have to take care of a couple of kidnapping that was probably done by the Railroad and I don't want you trying to get yourself killed again, so I'll go with ya." He agrees. Both of them stand up from their sits and walk outside the building after Valentine told Ellie where he's heading, she seems a little relieved when she hears about Clementine going with him. 

It took about half an hour before everyone was ready, MacCready offered to stay for the night but Clementine decided against it since they have no time and they don't know how long it will take. When it got dark everybody was as cautious as possible checking almost every small sound being afraid of an attack from Railroad, some bandits or super mutants. It took them another two days of careful walking around Boston's ruins they finally reached Boston Common they looked around and Clementine with the help of flashlight found a seal with 'A' marked on it with red seven painted. "Over here." She whisper-shouts to Valentine and Piper as they're the closest. 

She showed them what she found and Piper saw the red trail behind the brunette, she examined it for a second before following it for a short distance before coming back. "And?" Piper asks in a low voice, the others are still looking around trying to not wake The Swan up, they can't waste their resources on it. 

"It leads somewhere, where I don't know, Piper write down 'A7' for me, we'll follow the trail." Clementine asks and Piper writes down what Clem asked her too while brunette whistled to the others so they'll come to her. After a minute everyone is gathered and Clementine tells them about her finding and everyone agrees on following the trail. They went after the trail after they reached the Massachusetts State House and found another seal in front of it, this one had marked L with four painted on it and Piper wrote that down too. The sun started to rise and some people were tired but not all, so Clementine commanded for Danse and his team as they were tired to stay and rest while she and the rest go further down the trail. They passed through a couple of locations Old Granary burying ground with '2A' on another seal, Old State House '6O' on next seal, Old Corner Bookstore on the seal is '3I', Faneuil Hall another seal another part of the code '5R', Paul Revere House this time is '8D'. When they reached the Old North Church they got back to Danse's team because there was a probability that's an ambush because the trail leads inside the church going there took about three days and a half and almost all of them were falling asleep so Clementine agreed on a little break to catch some sleep while Nick will keep watch. 

They got back to Danse in three days and saw everyone is already awake and ready for action she tells them what the situation is while Piper is figuring out the code and it doesn't take her long to figure out that it is about. "Look." She tells showing Clementine the notepad. "2A, 3I, 4L, 5R, 6O, 7A, 8D. If we add 1R we have RAILROAD, maybe some password or something." The search for the base took far shorter than expected if that church is where Railroad is located. 

"Let's move out, expect enemies, they probably spotted us so they probably set up an ambush, be careful and what each others backs." Clementine commands, her team nods, Danse puts on his helmet and they move out. The longer they walked the more others got nervous they felt someone's eyes on their back the whole walk but they're close to the church and Clementine hopes it's there and they got there faster because they weren't as careful as they were. When they were standing in front of the church at least a dozen synths appear from the streets in front of them, all weapons even a couple of miniguns and Gatling guns. Clementine saw Lilly too, she stepped forward to try and talk to them knowing it'll end up in a fight. 

"What are you looking for?" Lilly asks, Clementine thinks about the question for a second to give her people as long as they need to figure out a plan. 

"Well, Railroad's base, but I think that if I bring you to elder it might be enough." Clementine says honestly, she hopes to avoid a fight but she knows that it has to happen. She sees a couple of synths starting to aim at her and in return Clementine's people aim at them. 

"You found our base, but you have to understand we can't let you get in there... And also we can't let you go too." Lilly says before glancing at the synths. "You're outnumbered and outgunned, give up and we'll grant you quick deaths." 

"Tempting offer but I have a couple of people waiting for me, so I'll say. Fuck. Off." Clementine tries to raise her rifle and at the same time both synths and her team start shooting but she wasn't able to even reach before she was shot in the chest the bullet makes her fall over. 

"Cover me!" She hears Piper says before she's getting dragged away, she looks down on her own chest before and she sees that it didn't go through the armor making her sigh in relief. Piper dragged her away behind cover, she quickly thanks to her before grabbing her rifle this time successfully. 

"You're fine kid?" Valentine asks before leaning out and shooting a couple of times at their enemies. 

"Yeah, armor stopped the bullet." Clementine replies. Brunette and MacCready lean out at the same time both shooting at synths as Lilly disappeared somewhere, MacCready hit one of the synths in the head while Clementine managed to hit another in the neck both of the synths fall dead, they take cover before any of the synths can attack back. Clementine glances at Danse and his team, they're taking the worst of the fighting but their power armors stop all the bullets send their way and manage to kill a few of the synths themselves. Valentine leans out with Piper and Cait and they all start shooting at the synths damaging them severely. "Fall back!" She hears Lilly's voice, brunette leans out even if the synths are currently shooting at her but if there's a chance she'll kill or wound Lilly it might end the war or at least weaken the Railroad. Dust and little pieces from the bricks from the building on her right hit Clementine's face but that doesn't stop her, just as she aims at Lilly she sees that woman throws something in their side, not entire second later Cait stood up too and in the same moment grenade lands down next to them. Clementine panics when she sees the grenade and the first thing she does is check if everyone else lay down to take cover, she only sees that Cait is as surprised as a brunette is. Clem as fast as she possibly can push her down but before she can lay down herself the grenade explodes sending her flying against a building, her head hitting a window, shrapnel hits everything around them. Her whole vision is blurry, her ears ringing she can't quite place what's happening around her, she's sure she can hear shots as well as someone saying for her to keep her eyes opened but she doesn't feel any pain apart from the pain in her head. 

"They're retreating!" She hears one of the knights yelling. She sees Piper shaking her lightly, she was the one to say to keep her eyes open. She hears more shots but only from her own team, she tries to pull herself up but she can't keep her balance, the pain in her head too much. After one minute of shooting it stops and Clementine was able to sit up and lean against the car they were hiding behind. She felt something run down her face, she touches liquid and sees crimson red but she ignores it, her whole pain is from the side of her head, the blood is streaming from down there. 

"Did shrapnel hit me?" Clementine manages to ask in a low voice, she sees Piper shrug. Piper moves her so she could look at her back but she could hear a sigh of relief. 

"Your armor stopped it, you're damn lucky, but rest a little, you hit yourself pretty hard." Piper offers and stands up, she looks around and sees nine bodies of synths from what Danse is saying they had fallen back to their base in the church. Not long after Piper takes out any fragments of the glass in her wound on right side of her head, clean the wound and apply a bandage over it. Clementine tries to stands up and manages to keep her balance, she can see far better now. 

"We don't have time... Danse, you and your team stay here, if they try to get out stop them, me and the rest will go to the airport to inform Maxson about our success." Clementine commands and tries to move but almost loses her balance. 

"Ya need rest." Cait says and Clementine shakes her head, they have to inform Maxson, Railroad will fight back and they can't know for sure how long they'll be able to fight them off. 

"We don't have time. If they run away we are back at the start and I doubt they're going to leave as easy trail as Freedom Trail was. We. Need. To. Go." She says and starts heading towards the airport not caring if other follow her or not, she can hear Valentine telling Danse to stand their ground while he and others will make sure brunette won't kill herself. Valentine, MacCready, Cait, and Piper rushed after Clementine to catch up to her as fast as possible. "You can stay with them, it'll be safer that way." Clementine offers and hears Cait scoff. 

"Sure, you probably have a concussion and we'll leave you on your own, I ain't talkin' to that girlfriend of yours if you die." MacCready chuckles. Clementine feels blood rushing to her face but she ignores it thinking how the hell they found out, yet she knows that she didn't talk to Violet about what they are and she couldn't force herself to talk with blonde about thinking she's not enough for Violet, sure, blonde showed her affection almost as if demanding brunette to talk about it, but Clementine was too afraid to face her. So she had, at least in her opinion, a great idea, she left a letter on her bed with hopes of blonde finding it, brunette spilled her feelings on that piece of paper. 

Violet decided to go sleep in brunette's room, hoping to savor brunette's scent for as long as possible, after a short shower blonde went to brunette's room, it was dark outside and she didn't want to turn on lights just to turn them off in a second so she blindly navigated to Clementine's bed and quickly got under covers, it was getting colder and colder with each day and right now Violet just wishes to be under those covers with Clementine. Violet rolls on her side and hears something crumple under her head, she reaches for it with her hand and feels paper, she groans a little, she hoped she might go to sleep now but she doesn't want to read brunette's personal things but she doesn't know where to put it so Violet turns the light on, her eyes squint a little before adjusting. Violet planned to just leave it along with Clementine's supplies for drawing as she keeps most of her things there but stops when she sees 'To Violet' written on a folded piece of paper, it looks like it was crumpled long before Violet laid on it. She opens it and smiles when she sees what's written on it. 

_Violet, at least I hope you're the one reading this and if not I'm coming for your ass, since you appeared in my life it turned around, I was no longer mostly lost in my own hopes or dreams or being on some suicidal mission hoping to get it done without getting hurt, usually failing at it too, yes, I'm still lost in them but not as much as I used to and when I dream about something or someone it's about you and only you, all my problems slowly made me reach for drinking booze to stop thinking about my damned problems, hell I was talking to those bandits that captured you and the rest after two sips of whiskey, but not long after you moved in, a day or two, I stopped, I never touched alcohol since I broke down in front of you, I actually start looking out for myself more, start eating more because of YOU, not Nora or anyone else it's all your work. I want to thank you for this, you in these two weeks did more to me than anyone else did in last six months, you had my heart almost since the beginning, you maybe noticed I was kinda shy around you at the start it never happened to me before, I'm shitty at dealing with feelings so this is why I'm not saying you this in person, and because I'm afraid I'm not enough for you, but I love you Violet and I know we didn't talk about it but I think we should, again I'm not telling you this in person because I'm shitty with feeling, do you want to be more than just friends? Like, you know... Girlfriends? You don't have to answer that question right away you read it but think about it, please. (Please say yes) -Yours, Clementine_

Piper managed to convince Clementine for them to take a break, all of them tired out by fight and two days of walking. "So what was about that 'girlfriend' of yours?" Piper's nosiness already gets turned on and Clementine rolls her eyes playfully as MacCready tries to start a fire. 

"She's not my girlfriend..." Clementine started but got cut off by Cait, that seeingly had seen Clementine and Violet too and brunette's already sure how they saw them, probably because Clementine never shuts the blinds. 

"Oh really? Because as far as I know ya won't let anyone touch you at that blonde's has been playing with your hair for the past couple of days." Cait snickers and Clementine glares at her while MacCready chuckles again. 

"We aren't together, I didn't have the courage to ask her about this." Clementine admits in low voice, she trusts people around her and she knows they trust her and respect her enough to not tell anyone about this. 

"So you want to tell me that Clementine, the person that wanted to go after Kellog on her own because was too afraid Nora will die, was too afraid to admit her feelings to some girl?" Piper asks with a smirk and Clementine glares now at her. 

"Cait, how much afraid you're to fuck something up with Nora?" Clementine asks Cait, she seems a little troubled by that question but answers nonetheless. 

"It's the thing I'm most scared of." She admits and Clementine nods with a slight smile. 

"Multiply that by a thousand." Clementine says to Piper and she slightly nods trying to understand what Clementine feels and she still can't imagine. 

"So you prefer facing a deathclaw on your own?" MacCready asks intrigued after manging to start a fire, everybody apart from Nick got closer to the fire to get warm. Clementine thinks about that question and considering she's scared shitless of what Violet will think of the letter she prefers to face a deathclaw. 

"Yep." 

"Fucking gay disaster." Piper snickers and now Clementine glares at her again but even harder and it seems to stop Piper's laughing as well as stop Cait's smirk. 

"I'm curious. When did you realize?" She hears Nick's raised voice, he was the last person she expected to join in on this conversation but she knows that he, as well as the others, expects the answer. 

Clementine starts to think on that question, she doesn't even know when exactly, she knows that she discovered love for the blonde after she got all wounded after hunting for bandits and that's the best reply. "When I came back from hunting for bandits, you know, when I was barely walking." Clementine answers and she knows that neither Piper or Valentine know what happened but they know her for long enough that they can figure it out on their own. 

"So, in short, we got so bored we ask about Clementine's love life?" MacCready asks jokingly and Piper replies quickly with 'yep' making Cait chuckle as well as Clementine, brunette would have never thought she'll ever have to talk to anyone about her love life, she didn't even know she'll even have a love life. After people ate something, Nick was on the watch, a plus of having a synth of the older generation, they don't need sleep. A couple of days went by like that whilst traveling to the airport, it would be day quicker if other wouldn't be so much worried about Clementine's head, they didn't have more bandages and most of her was already crimson red but she was insisting on saying she's fine, at least from what Piper told she won't even have a scar as the wound isn't deep. When they approached the entrance to the airport the knights protecting it immediately recognized Clementine and let her and her team through without asking any questions. She told her team to wait for her when she'll be talking with the elder, they just nodded and went in another direction. Clementine got inside the Prydwen and immediately found Maxson looking down on the commonwealth. 

"You found them?" He asks, she leans on the railing and nods, she could see a small smile forming on a young man's face, not a usual sight. 

"While looking for them we found some sort of code, it stands for RAILROAD, might be important." She tells him and he nods with a blank expression as he thinks about something. 

She then thought about what happened to her already by just small skirmish, a cut in her head as well as a couple of bruises, for once she doesn't want to fight, for once she wants to come back and get some rest and the longer she thinks about it the more she understands she felt like this for a long time back then she didn't really have a reason to get back but now she has Violet. "Elder?" 

"Yes soldier?" 

"I'm not going to assist in the attack on Railroad." Clementine states she technically has to obey Maxson's orders but she thinks he'll understand it looking at her wound on her head. 

"I wasn't going to ask you to help, just tell me where they are, you and your friends can go then, I'll contact Institute and ask what they want to do and if you want to you can send a couple of your soldiers too." Maxson replies and Clementine smiles lightly as she turns her head to Commonwealth. 

"Old North Church, what will you do with all the people that surrender? Or those that you'll find there?" Clementine asks because she kind of feels responsible for all those people. 

"I don't know about those that surrender but all that they kidnapped will get back to their houses." Maxson assures, Clementine nods and gets back down with the help of vertibird. She approached her team that was standing not far from the entrance they talked about something but stopped when they saw Clementine. 

"I guess we're coming back?" MacCready asks and all of them are surprised when Clementine shakes her head. 

"No. I'm tired, wounded, I get back, you can go if you want." Clementine tells them and all of them apart from Nick agree to go with her. 

"I'll go with Brotherhood, I need to check how people from kidnaps are there, how many are still alive." Nick explains, Clementine now thought again if she doesn't want to go with them but Nick sees her hesitation and assures he'll be fine so Clementine starts to go back with the rest first to Diamond City to drop Piper off and then back to Sanctuary and it took another couple of days to get back to city they're outside Sanctuary for well over three weeks by now and brunette starts to miss it. Whole road to Diamond City wasn't easy, they encountered many bandits and super mutants and they were already running low on ammo and they didn't have caps to buy more but fortunately for them, Clementine and Nora bought a house in the city that had many supplies inside, ammo too. Clementine took a small part of it and handed it to her friends. 

"Try not to miss, it's not that much and we still have at least a whole day of walking." Clementine commands, she added more time because she doesn't want to hurry so much. They moved outside the city, brunette took the shortest and safest route to Sanctuary. When they reached a safe spot to camp for the night Clementine was relieved that if they move out as soon as the sun will rise they'll be in Sanctuary before most people will be up, Violet included. Cait was on the watch in the night as she's not as tired as others so Clementine went to sleep, she didn't sleep for so long it didn't even took one minute for her to be asleep. 

"I'm tellin' ya, they were somewhere 'round here." Clementine hears someone's muffled voice, MacCready whispering to Cait but she decided to ignore it thinking they just don't want to wake her up. 

Until she felt a firm shake on her shoulder, she opened her eyes and after they adjusted to the light she saw MacCready shaking her. "Get up, we have troubles." He says and it wasn't even five seconds before Clementine was holding her rifle and her backpack on her back. She moved to the window where Cait was looking at something and looked through it too. 

"Only three of 'em." Cait informs, Clementine nods, there are only three of them, she wonders how long they've been following them, bandits most probably, gunners in the worst case. 

"Get their attention, I'll get out that window, go around and attack them from the side." Clementine tells her plan while pointing at the window on the other side of the room they were sleeping in. Cait and MacCready nods and as soon as Clementine jumps out the window they start shooting. Clementine sneaks around the building. When she reached the end of it she saw that these people were returning fire at her friends and one of them looked like he got shot in the shoulder as blood poured out of it. When bandits took cover Clementine ran to the closest barrel and her small figure allowed her to hide behind it with no fear of bandits spotting her. Brunette leaned out lightly and saw that she can see all of the bandits. Clementine now aims at the head of one of the bandits and because they're too focused on shooting at the building she was hiding in they don't spot her until she pulls the trigger. Not wasting time Clementine started to shoot at another and managed to severely wound him in the chest while the last one got shot by MacCready. Bandit Clementine shot quickly bleed out, she searched them and had a couple of pipe pistols to disassemble and a small amount of ammo. Clementine looks up and the sun didn't come out yet but the adrenaline in her veins won't let her sleep for some time so she and others start heading towards Sanctuary earlier. 

Another four hours passed but they were already at Sanctuary's gates, minutemen standing on top of them immediately opened the gates when they saw their general and asked how the mission went, she told quickly what happened and they nodded. She waved goodbye to MacCready and Cait then started to head back to her house. Clementine entered the house and headed to the garage to put her gear away, she took off her armor and looked at the back of it to look how it looked after shrapnel hit her, armor barely managed and she will have to fix it but she prefers this than being hit by it. She had a whole wardrobe of clothes in the garage, she didn't want to move to her bedroom just to change after coming back from missions so she put it there and she can change without worrying anyone's watching because she fixed the garage doors. After changing in some hoodie and some sweat pants she only wore in her house she got back inside the house and straight to the bathroom to take a hot shower that she needed. She tossed her clothes on again, applied a new bandage and walked outside the bathroom with her hair down she wanted to head inside the bedroom and try to sleep a little longer before Violet wakes up but as soon as she entered her room she felt someone's arms wrap around her waist that pulled her as close as possible and a pair of warm and soft lips on hers and it didn't take her even a second to recognize that it's Violet that's kissing her. When she realized she moved her arms around blonde's shoulders before kissing back as passionately and with the same amount of feeling as blonde kisses her with. 

"I love you too, Clementine." Brunette hears blonde's voice say after they pulled their heads back a little but their arms stayed where they are. When Clementine heard those words she smiled even more than she anticipated to and without thinking she kissed blonde again but she poured all the feelings she had to blonde in that kiss, even more than she poured in her letter, love, affection, warmth, safety all those things she feels around Violet. "What happened to you?" Violet asks after they pull away again, probably meaning the bandage on her head. Clementine instead of answering dragged blonde by the hand to the couch and sat her down before laying on her lap, Violet was playing with brunette's hairs but now instead of playing with the hair on side of her head, she plays with hair on top of her head. 

"Well, we found Railroad's base, Danse, and his team stayed back to fight them after Institute and Brotherhood joins them, but before that, we were in a skirmish with them, a grenade landed not far from me. Armor stopped the fragmentation but it threw me against a building and, unfortunately, I hit a window with my head." Clementine shortly explains what happened and Violet doesn't say anything throughout it, she just listens. 

"I can't even imagine what could've happened if your armor would let that fragmentation through." Violet mumbles out, Clementine hears it. 

"Oh, I wouldn't die." Clementine assures and Violet raises her eyebrow trying to figure out what brunette means. "All I wanted to do before my death, after leaving you that note, was to say to you 'I love you' at least once." 

Clementine sat up for a quick moment to pull blonde into yet another kiss but that one was far shorter yet it sends the same shiver down blonde's spine as the previous ones. "I love you." Blonde feels brunette breath out against her lips, their noses slightly touching, their eyes closed. 

Brunette slowly laid down back on Violet's lap but she has fallen asleep before Violet could even start playing with her hair again and Violet is already sure Clementine didn't sleep in a long time, so she carefully stands up and picks Clementine up before carrying her to brunette's bedroom and laying her in the bed. Violet looked at Clementine for a second when she was sleeping and thought she looked adorable. Violet leaned down kissing softly on the forehead before going outside the house to as quickly as possible be done with her work to get back to brunette and lay with her, she missed brunette's warmth through this month and she couldn't wait to feel it again.


	16. Clementine/Ciri

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Witcher AU  
> So, uh, smut warning. This is my first attempt (second technically but the first one was over a year ago in another language) at smut so please understand if it's off or weird.

The breeze of cool wind gently hit brunette against her face, one thing she loves in being a witcher is that she can travel wherever she wishes to but she isn't sure if she wouldn't prefer to be 'normal' because she has to risk her life every day for a couple of crowns, even if she didn't do her job for some time just because she was with Ciri, brunette knew Ciri didn't need any protection but she was there just to make sure Avallac'h won't try anything stupid with Ciri and brunette only tolerated him because Ciri trusted him. She stumbled into Ciri when she got a job to kill a Werewolf not far from Crow's Perch and stuck with her since then and it was quite a time since brunette saw her so she wanted to know what Ciri has been doing. Geralt is having another birthday so Clementine is now heading to his winery in Toussaint and Clementine hopes that Ciri will be there before her, brunette should be there in a week but she's always before the time and neither Geralt or Yennefer are complaining since she wants and likes to help with preparations. After Ciri became a witcher they went somewhat separate ways, they met a couple of times on the trail and Clementine was helping Geralt with teaching Ciri the trade, even if brunette is the youngest witcher, she's barely fifty years old, she still has the experience and knowledge not much worse than Geralt's. She had luck when she became a witcher, her hair didn't grey and she didn't lose her emotions but that didn't help when Vesemir died, she almost went to do everything she can to find Wild Hunt and fight them on her own and she would go if Geralt and Yennefer didn't stop her forcefully. Her amber eyes were now glowing and only that and her necklace were showing she's a witcher which ended in many bandits ending dead when they tried to rob her. 

Talking about bandits, Clementine heard a heavy and scratchy voice telling her to stop, she groaned in annoyance, listened, and got off her horse but not to surrender. Two sketchy looking men walked in front of her and she could hear at least two more sneakings behind her. "What such a fine and young lady doing by traveling by herself?" One of them asks getting dangerously close, dangerously close for him. 

"What do you think?" She asks with aggression in her voice but he doesn't seem to be amazed by it, he's probably confident since he has his people around him. He tried to touch her face but before he even could get close she dragged her dagger and pushed it against his abdomen making him feel it but it didn't damage him. "Trying to ignore assholes and admire the scenery." She says sarcastically with a grin on her face. He still didn't look amazed and roared with laughter along with his men. "Look at my necklace." She orders and he does so. Now there's shock and fear in his eyes, he looks back at the shorter girl's face. 

"Get 'er!" He orders, she hears two of them rushing on her from behind, she quickly throws Aard at him making him fly back, she turns back quickly and her unnatural reflexes allow her to throw her dagger straight in the head of one of the bandits before the second can reach her, she throws Igni at him making him catch in fire. Turning back and drawing her sword from her back she quickly moves to attack the last standing bandit as the one that went flying is still trying to get up, her blows quickly go past bandit's defense, she cuts his arm off and then his head. Her sword still in her hand, she approaches the still laying bandits and presses her sword against his throat and pushes it forward gently, he starts to choke on his blood. The bandit that she put on fire managed to put the fire out and charged at her when she still had her back turned against him but she heard him again and went under his blow and decapitated him in one swift move of her arms. She sheathed her sword, took the money and her dagger off bandits corpses and continued her road, she was in Toussaint by now but far enough from any populated areas that bandits were common on the roads. 

It took her almost rest of the day to get there and the sun was slowly setting, she took her bag with clothes for change from her horse and headed to the doors, she knocked on them and waited for anyone to open, she greeted a couple of people working around in the fields, if she finds time she'll help them. Doors opened and from behind them appeared a man with grey hair, a scar over his eye, and a couple of smaller ones on his face. "I was wondering when you'll get here." Geralt says and pulls Clementine into a quick hug. He looks down and sees red stains on Clementine's armor. "And of course you're in blood." 

"Perks of being a witcher." She says while Geralt lets her in. Clementine looks around, a small smile appears on her lips when she sees the familiar setting. What made her smile wider is a woman with ash hair eating grilled pork. When Ciri saw her she quickly wiped the rest of the food around her mouth and rushed to the brunette hugging her. Clementine felt weird warmth spread around her but she ignored the feeling and hugged back. When they pulled away Clementine saw a small drop of blood on Ciri's neck. "What happened?" Clementine asks while pointing at the blood drop. 

"Some fucks attacked me on my way here." Ciri explains and returns to her plate, Clementine takes her blades off her back and leans them against a table before sitting next to Ciri while Geralt sat on the other side of the table. Clementine wondered if the people that attacked Ciri are from the same group that attacked her so she asks while giving her details of what happened. "Yeah, the same happened." Ciri quickly says as she gets back to eating fast, Clementine wonders how long it has been since Ciri ate last time but also her mind thinks if it could be a bigger group of bandits. 

"I'll go and get rid of them tomorrow." Clementine thinks out loud. She only wants to do so because others will probably use this road and if there will be an even bigger group waiting next time then people that don't know how to fight well might die. 

"I'm going with you." Ciri states and Clementine doesn't even argue she's aware that Ciri will do what she wants to. Clementine slightly nods. "You managed to get some contracts lately? I couldn't find any." 

Clementine nods again before saying. "Yeah, a cyclopse got inside a cave in Velen after killing some villagers." 

"Luck." Ciri says and Clementine rolls her eyes. 

Clementine looked around to look for Yennefer since she didn't saw her yet. "Where's Yennefer?" Clementine asks. 

"In the city. She should be back in a while." Geralt answers the question, Clementine nods. Clementine pulls a little bit of bread she bought some time ago and started to eat it, she didn't eat for three days at least and didn't sleep for even longer. "How that contract of yours went?" 

"Almost perfect, if not for a huge bruise on my ribs, it managed to hit me while I tried to dodge its attack." Clementine starts to tell them. "Finding it was easy, follow big footsteps." 

Clementine told them about her contract before going to change to something that isn't covered in blood, she didn't have many scares but if she had they were deep and it was almost impossible to not notice then, but at least she only has one on her face, a light one, on her eyebrow. She also left all of her things in her room along with her swords. Clementine thought if maybe she should go to sleep but decided against it because she wants to at least greet Yennefer before it. Clementine went outside the building and went looking for Ciri since Geralt told her she went somewhere outside. It didn't take long for brunette to find Ciri, just five minutes to find her laying under a tree watching the sunset, Clementine approached her laid next to her. "I've been wondering, you finally have someone, or are you still alone?" Ciri asks after five minutes and the question makes Clementine groan a little, she always answers the same question with the same response and Ciri somehow still asks it almost every time they meet. 

"Still alone." 

"And why? As far as I know you never even tried, is there someone that you want but just can't admit it." Ciri thinks out loud and Clementine nods letting her know that it is true and Ciri does seem quite surprised at it. 

"Who is he?" Woman asks looking at brunette and Clementine looks at her too. 

"Who said it's he?" Clementine shoots back and not there's even more intrigue in Ciri's eyes than before, she started to say most of the names Clementine knows trying to guess but none of them are accurate since she didn't say her name. 

"If it's Triss, then I assure you, she'll be yours, I'll help you." Ciri jokes and Clementine rolls her eyes then went back to look at the sunset while Ciri did the same. Clementine didn't even know when she started to feel something towards Ciri, it could be when she stumbled into her in that forest while Ciri ran away from or it could be on one of the times when they met on the trail, she doesn't know and doesn't care about it. 

"I've been thinking, we should go and kill that last witch that has Vesemir's necklace." Clementine offers, Ciri's eyes lit up a little, brunette is aware of how much that necklace meant to Ciri and she wanted to grab it on the way to Toussaint but after killing that cyclopse she had no time to do so. 

"I agree." Ciri quickly replies and went back to looking at the sun. Clementine smiles at Ciri before doing the same. 

"Oh, and it's not Triss I want." Clementine replies making Ciri slightly chuckle. Clementine enjoyed the smell around the winery as well as scenery, she once wondered if maybe she could move here, Geralt would agree probably and there's enough work for a witcher around here but she doesn't know what Yennefer will say. "If Yennefer won't be here in ten minutes, I'm going to sleep." Clementine states, she didn't sleep for a little over a week and she's too tired to wait for Yennefer to come back. 

Yennefer arrived a couple of minutes later in the same moment Clementine wanted to go to sleep, they talked for a while before Clementine retreated to her room to sleep for at least a couple of hours. Clementine fell asleep quickly and she missed the bed. It always felt more comfortable sleeping in the winery. A gentle shake woke her up, she saw Ciri trying to wake her up, morning light getting through the windows inside the room, she yawned and sat up on her bed. "It's still early." Clementine mumbled and tried to lay back down but Ciri pulled her up. 

"Yes, but if we hurry, maybe we'll be able to get back before it gets dark." Ciri says, Clementine stretches and tells Ciri to go out while she changes to her armor. She walked outside her room, her swords on her back. She reluctantly followed Ciri outside the building and they went back where those bandits attacked Ciri and Clementine, in the meantime, they talked about what they were doing when they weren't around each other. "I still can't believe you got hit so hard you went flying." Ciri tells when Clementine told her work with cyclopse went. 

"I did, and let me tell you, it fucking hurt." Clementine says with a chuckle, making Ciri chuckle too. They weren't that far away from where they attacked Clem. They tied their horses and looked for trails of bandits, Clementine noticed faint footprints in the ground from where the bandits she talked with appeared from. After following them for a while they reached a river and saw their camp, Clementine counted fifteen of them. "I'll go there, attack them. When they'll be focused on me you attack from the back." Clementine orders and before Ciri could even start arguing about the stupidity of the plan Clementine stood up and started to head towards the camp, her sword in her hand. 

Brunette focused on the archers, one of the bandits pointed at her making one of the archers aim at her and let the arrow go, she deflected it with ease thanks to her reflexes and just kept walking forward, two of them charged at her, she charged forward cutting one of their throats, she parried second's attack and cut him in half. When she kept pushing forward the bandits formed a circle around her, when first tried to attack her she dodged his attack and jumped around from one bandit to other to stop from them getting in her space, her attacks sometimes were blocked and sometimes went through killing some bandit. One of the archers tried shooting her again, she deflected the arrow that hit another bandit in the chest. Clementine heard someone running while she fought the bandits, Ciri attacked them from behind taking out some of the bandits on her own. Clementine finished off the last one, she panted lightly while Ciri wasn't that tired as she was. "You're stupid, aren't you?" Ciri asked in an annoyed tone, Clementine looked at her a little surprised. "I know you're mutated and can take on more than a human, but still it was stupid." 

"They didn't even hit me, I'd do it the same way if I would do it alone." Clementine assures, Ciri just huffs and starts heading back to her horse, Clementine follows quickly. "What was I supposed to do? Let you go first? You're a witcher too, but as you said, I'm mutated, you are not." Clementine justifies her actions and Ciri just ignores her, it reminds her of Ciri when Clementine tried to convince her to not trust Avallac'h. 

"We could have waited for the dark and got rid of them quietly, not risking our lives over it." Ciri says after ten minutes, they're back where they left their horses. 

"Okay, maybe I acted a little too rashly." Clementine admits. Ciri scoffs. They start to get back but now there's an agonizing silence over them until they get back, Clementine wanted to talk but she knew Ciri will either ignore her or scoff. It got dark when they reached the winery. They still didn't talk to each other. The day ended in Clementine telling Geralt what happened and she meditated for the night. In the morning Clementine took a short stroll around the winery and what she didn't expect to happen was to ash-haired woman approached her. 

Ciri hesitated to talk for a second. "I shouldn't be angry at you." Ciri admits, Clementine just shrugs not knowing how to exactly respond to that. 

"And I shouldn't go alone at fifteen bandits, the fault is on both of our sides." Clementine replies making Ciri smile just a little, both of them happy they were again on talking terms. The strolled around the winery for quite some time in comfortable silence, Clementine caught herself staring at Ciri on multiple occasions but the ash-haired woman didn't look like she noticed it. They both went to the city to look for food and drinks for the part, there was still some time for it but they preferred having planned it out earlier. "You think Jaskier will get those musicians?" Clementine asks, a year ago Jaskier swore he'll get a couple of musicians so they could dance since they had place for it outside, Geralt, obviously, tried to stop him but he just kept on ignoring the witcher. 

"If he does, it's going to be fun watching him convince Geralt to dance with Yennefer, and if he succeeds, I'll be surprised." Ciri exclaims and Clementine agrees. "Have you ever danced?" 

"No, but if they get me drunk enough, maybe I will." Clementine jokes. She never danced and never wanted to but she was kind of curious how it is to dance. "You will dance?" 

"Yes, but only if someone else agrees to dance with me." Ciri responds sending brunette a smile, a type of smile Clementine never saw before, not from her at least. 

Looking for food and drinks ended in yet another stroll but this one was more tense and Clementine didn't know why but it felt like this since Ciri sent her that smile. She was over fifty years old and she still didn't know much about other relationships, she didn't usually talk much, only when she was around people she trusts and apart from that it was usually just a quick conversation about the contract she took. 

Days went by people slowly arriving, Clementine, Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer preparing the whole party, and some of the evenings Clementine and Ciri took a quick stroll around the area of the winery. Clementine loved all the moments she spent time with Ciri alone but she knew that nothing will probably happen between them and in two days they will have to go their own ways again, back on the trail. And as Jaskier promised, he brought musicians, and Geralt's expression made Clementine's day. Right now, Clementine was playing Gwent with Lambert as the others talked around and musicians played loud music she sort of hates, but at least they aren't drinking so when the party's over they'll be gone. "Fuck!" Lambert shouts throwing his hand on the table while Clementine has a confident smirk on her face, the last time they played Lambert won but that year Clementine got far better at playing Gwent and didn't let anyone know. She looked at other people laughing outside, musicians are out there and people that ended their work were using that occasion to dance themselves. 

"Told you." Clementine says while gathering her cards, Lambert glares at her. Clementine stands up from the table and walks away from there. She saw Ciri standing not talking to anyone drinking something, wine maybe, Clementine gets closer and could smell the wine but from all the wine that's poured everywhere, she can't quite tell what exactly wine it is. "I won." Clementine exclaims, Ciri betted she'll win, Ciri smiles slightly. 

"Jaskier owes me a hundred of crowns." Ciri mutters out. They stand like that for a while looking at others having fun, some people are drunk, some are just tipsy but they're having great fun and Clementine's proud of that she helped with organizing that. Ciri looks outside the window and smiles again and Clementine doesn't like how that smile looks. Before she could even react she was being dragged by Ciri outside the building and brunette couldn't even argue with what was happening because she was slightly tipsy too. What got Clementine curious is that they passed all the people that were dancing and went behind the building, no one was there and they could still hear music. 

Clementine didn't know what they were doing there and just when she wanted to ask Ciri was first to speak. "I want to dance with you, I know you don't know how and won't agree to do it in front of other people, plus, I need to talk to you about something." Ciri says. musicians as if on cue started to play another song that was slightly slower. Before Clementine could argue to just talk Ciri placed one of Clementine's hand on her shoulder while taking the other in her own, Ciri placed her hand on Clementine's hip and started leading the dance Clementine followed trying her best to not step on Ciri's feet. 

"So what you wanted to talk about?" Clementine asked trying to focus on her movement trying not to embarrass herself completely. Brunette looked at the taller woman's face there was a hint of troubled look there but she doesn't think Ciri knew about it. 

"About me." Ciri breathed out, Clementine only focused on her voice, even if she's shit at dancing she enjoyed doing it with Ciri. "I give you so much shit, almost all the time, and after Kaer Morhen even more than usual, normal people would just stop caring but not you, you always try to make things better even if it's usually... Never your fault. Just why do you still try and put up with me?" Ciri asks, Clementine doesn't know how to exactly answer to that, maybe her feelings towards the taller woman made her so patient whenever they argued. Alcohol in her head just started to kick in and brunette's pretty sure it was why instead of just trying to avoid answering she slightly stood on her toes leaning in a kiss that was reciprocated their dance stopped as the world started to move slower. Clementine smiled into the kiss and closed her eyes slowly all that waiting and just her hoping something like that could happen. She felt being pushed against a wall by Ciri and she just let that happen as she dreamt of this too many times to stop. She felt Ciri's tongue trying to invade brunette's mouth, Clementine allows her access. There was no gap in between them and the kiss turned more and more sloppy by every second, Clementine moaned into the kiss when she felt Ciri's thigh slightly grind against her heat. Just as Clementine wanted to try to turn around so she'd be pinning Ciri against a wall they heard Triss' voice calling for them, in panic they quickly pull away and fix themselves before Triss caught them. There was a slight blush on both of them but the shadow dropping on them managed to somewhat hide it. Clementine felt like she was flying when Ciri kissed her and what she would give for it to go further but Triss had to ruin it but when she thinks about it she prefers her doing it now than later. 

Triss appears from behind the corner of the building finding Ciri and Clementine chatting, even if they faked it, she was glad she found them. "There you are, there'll be a toast in a second, and Clem, Zoltan wants to play Gwent with you. What did you two do for almost half an hour?" Triss' question startles both Ciri and Clementine, they both thought they were here for at most ten minutes, at least not long enough for anyone to notice them being gone. 

"We thought we heard someone sneaking, we preferred checking it." Clementine makes up and excuse. Ciri agrees with what brunette is saying and Triss buys it, they all get back inside the house to see everyone holding a mug of beer. Clementine and Ciri take one but they just keep smiling all the time at each other. Geralt raised a toast for another year of great friendships and for them to last another. When they all drank the party was, people laughing, playing Gwent and that was what Clementine was doing, it was hers eight game with Zoltan and she only lost one only because she caught herself thinking too much about what happened with Ciri. When she won the next one Zoltan gave up, brunette hoped she'll be able to play at least once with Geralt. She was far drunker than earlier because of Zoltan's vodka and she knew she had to stop at least for some time. She talked with a couple of people she still didn't talk to, Regis, Eskel, and Anna Henrietta. 

A couple of hours passed and the party was still at its peak but everyone's far more drunk apart from Clementine and Lambert they both sobered up to check who can drink faster Zoltan's vodka and everyone was looking in amazement at them they had five glasses full of vodka they get ready. "You really want to get wasted?" She hears Ciri asking in somewhat excited voice, she wonders if she's the group of people thinking that what she's about to do is stupid or the group that places bets. 

"Nope. And besides, I'll sober up in an hour or so." Clementine answers in a sober voice even if her thoughts are blurry. When Lambert and Clementine got ready they started to drink on Geralt's sign, she quickly drank the glasses ignoring the burning sensation in her throat thinking she'll bother once she's done and that thought alone let her win with Lambert by just mere milliseconds. She shut her eyes closed adapting to the slight numbness in the tips of her fingers, she laughed when she opened her eyes. Lambert mumbled something while Ciri laughed too it was the first time she saw him lose with Clementine at anything. A couple of people whined when they reminded themselves of their bets but some cheered when Clementine won. After that party continued for not much longer as people started to pass out either from tiredness or from being too drunk but before brunette retreated to her own room she played with Geralt at Gwent but lost and she wasn't even mad because she was still drunk from the vodka. 

She and Ciri were the last ones to get to their room she was somewhat sober then but her head was slightly pounding but she was barely feeling it. Clementine was about to lie down when she heard her door open slightly she saw Ciri approaching her with a slight smile on her face, brunette wanted to ask what's Ciri is doing but before she had a chance to do so Ciri straddled her and clashed their lips together, Clementine was surprised at first by it but this time she didn't let Ciri take control over her. They made out like that for a minute before brunette subconsciously moved her hand from CIri's hip to her ass she thought that Ciri will pull away from the kiss but instead brunette felt Ciri's hand on top of hers slowly rise under Ciri's top and then slowly get lower under the pants and panties at one of the ass cheeks. Clementine smiled into the kiss and squeezed it. Ciri pulled away surprising Clementine again, brunette thought Ciri wanted to go away now when brunette's arousal got so high but Ciri just took off her top letting her breasts fall freely. Clementine watched them as in trance before Ciri crashed her lips on brunette's. A couple of minutes later Clementine pulled away, not because she wants to but because she needs to breathe but just now it got to her what happened. "We're drunk..." Clementine mutters out thinking Ciri does it only because they're both drunk. 

"No, no, no, you're drunk, and besides I know that you want me." Ciri whisper in brunette's ear in sultry voice making shivers go down her spine and brunette can't feel any alcohol, well not enough for Ciri to not know what she's doing. Clementine takes her hand out of Ciri's pants and places it back on her hip now it was Ciri's turn to think Clementine will back off but before she could even react Clementine stood up while still holding Ciri, the taller woman wrapped her legs around brunette's waist from instinct. Brunette laid them down, now she was on top of Ciri and sucked lightly on her neck while Ciri placed her legs on . Drawing small and quiet moan from Ciri's mouth when brunette found the sweet spot Clementine's hand ventured to Ciri's left breast, she felt a hardened bud on the center of her hand, brunette started to slowly massage getting sounds of pleasure out of Ciri's mouth. Clementine kissed Ciri's neck and slowly went lower, too slow for Ciri's liking but she's aware Clementine won't go faster even if she would beg her to. Brunette slowly went to the collar bone kissing all over it slowly getting to Ciri's chest. As one of the brunette's hands were massaging Ciri's breast she was kissing all over other breast but she avoided the nipple on purpose finding an odd satisfaction with Ciri squirming under her. Just as Ciri wanted to hurry Clementine she felt brunette sucking on her nipple as hard as she can drawing a louder and longer moan from Ciri. Brunette slowly removed Ciri's pants when she was working on her nipple trying to get as many sounds out of woman's mouth as possible. 

When Ciri's pants went flying somewhere across the room Clementine slowly let go of the nipple, kissed it last time and slowly went from right breast to left breast her hand letting go off the left one but she started to massage the right one but using more force and flicking the nipple every once in a while. This time she gave Ciri what she wanted and didn't tease her for so long and almost immediately went to suck on a pink nipple but a little more gentle, soft moans escaped Ciri's lips but she wanted Clementine to get between her legs and work there. Clementine was feeling like she was boiling and wishes it would be Ciri doing all those things to her but she has enough satisfaction by just pleasuring Ciri and watching her squirm under her touch. Brunette's hand let go off Ciri's breast and went lower down the abdomen slowly and gently rubbing it for a second going lower and lower until she was right above the waistband of Ciri's panties right before she let her hand go even lower she started to such harder on Ciri's nipple while her hand gently rubbed Ciri's clit which caused her to moan the loudest this night and that sound was music for Clementine's ears she wanted to hear all the time. Brunette felt the heat radiating off Ciri's pussy but she didn't move her hand faster she slowly teased Ciri. Clementine before letting go of the nipple she bit it lightly, brunette shifted to look at Ciri's face her eyes closed and her whole face squirming while trying to shift her hips so she'd feel Clementine's fingers inside of her but Clementine wasn't letting any of that happen for now. Shorter girl kissed Ciri and invaded Ciri's mouth with her tongue and Ciri let that happen, they make out Clementine exploring every crook of Ciri's mouth. Clementine retreated her hand out of Ciri's panties hearing taller woman whine in the kiss at the loss of touch, brunette removed Ciri's panties throwing them somewhere in the room their lips still connected in a heated kiss. Brunette run her pointing finger through Ciri's folds feeling the amount of slick already covering the tip of her finger, Clementine moved her finger to Ciri's entrance teasing it she felt woman under her squirm again at the feeling. 

This continued for a couple of minutes with Ciri squirming and trying to shift so Clementine would put fingers inside of her already. Clementine smirked a little and pushed two fingers inside of Ciri making her scream into the kiss, Ciri wrapped her arms around Clementine her nails scratching brunette's shoulder blades, it's possible that if not for the kiss someone would hear the scream. Clementine pulled away and kissed Ciri's neck, collar bone, one of the nipples, and down the abdomen until she reached the clit and sucked on it earning a loud and drawn out moan. "Clementine... I'm gonna..." Ciri says in between her loud moans, Clementine understood the message, she started to suck harder on the clit and pumped her fingers in and out faster and with more force making the wet sound louder. Ciri's hands got tangled in Clementine's thick locks, her body started to tremble and her back arched as her moans got even louder as she felt the heat in her stomach rise and rise until it erupted with her final scream. Clementine licked all the fluids that she managed to catch as she still slowly pumped her digits in and out. Clementine removed her soaked digits out of Ciri and cleaned them too with a small smile on her lips when she heard Ciri's panting. When she cleaned her fingers she caught woman's lips in yet another kiss allowing her to taste herself, she saw the blush all over Ciri's face making her smile slightly wider but brunette herself wanted to experience the sweet release. "We're not done yet." Clementine whispered in her lover's ear. 

"Then hurry." Ciri says. Clementine didn't know what she meant but when she looked outside the window she saw that it's getting brighter with every minute. Not wasting another minute she quickly took off her top, pants, and panties and got back on top of Ciri, brunette placed her clit over Ciri's they both moaned a little when doing that, she was even wetter than Ciri was. Clementine connected their lips when she started to rock her hips into Ciri's with such speed and force they immediately moaned loudly. Clementine keeps rocking her hips faster and faster until she shut her eyes and moved her hand down to her clit and started rubbing it as fast as she can as she kept on moaning until she cried in pleasure, Ciri felt a warm substance rolling down her folds and thighs encouraging her to go even faster until she reached the climax yet again. Clementine collapsed on top of Ciri, both of them panting heavily and both of them heavily blushing. Brunette rolled off Ciri and wiped the single drops of sweat getting into her eyes. "It was your plan?" She asks wondering if it was what Ciri wanted to do from the start. 

"Not really..." Ciri still panted and rolled on her side to face Clementine. "I wanted to ask about what happened earlier and if it meant anything to you. But when I felt you hand on my ass I just couldn't resist." Ciri smiled lightly. Clementine now was facing Ciri too wanting to answer the question. 

"That kiss meant to me more than anything else in this damned world." Clementine answers shyly. "Did it mean anything to you?" She wanted to know if any of what happened earlier or what happened just a couple of minutes ago meant anything to Ciri too or if it was just a fuck that meant nothing. She felt Ciri's lips slightly touch hers in a more gentle and sweet kiss than any of the previous ones. 

"If you wouldn't mean anything to me I wouldn't let any of that happened I'm not that type of person that would just use you. What just happened answered my question, that you wanted me, not anyone else, I thought about that and realized I want you too." Ciri admits making Clementine smile softly at the words, she leaned in again connecting their lips once more. 

"Try and get some sleep, I'll wake you when we'll have to get up." Clementine offers seeing that Ciri is really tired, brunette still can't believe that they fucked the whole night without anyone waking up... Hopefully. Ciri just nodded, placed her head on Clementine's shoulder, her arms wrapped around her waist, and drifted off to sleep while Clementine just watched outside the window looking at the sun slowly rise and listening to the light and soft snores escaping Ciri's lips from time to time. And she also hopes no one will get inside her room to wake her since that person will see Ciri and Clementine both naked, their clothes thrown around the room, laying in a slight embrace.


	17. OC (Dina/Ellie if squint real hard and have good imagination)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US II)
> 
> Well, this is quite a cliff-hanger. I know I didn't update this one for a long time but I didn't have an idea what I should write, but this is one of many works I worked on that might get uploaded if it'll be well received, it would be a basically slight rewrite of tlou2 story (joel, jesse surviving basically). This is just a small taste of this story.

Sydney feels like a small jab at her hand, causing her to panic and grab whoever's jabbing her by the wrist. She sees Jesse, with a worried look on his face. "What's going on?" She asks in a hoarse voice, she and Ellie did different things, both of them fought W.L.F at some point, but only Ellie came back with something, Sydney just was exhausted and went to sleep as soon as she got back. She hears someone puke in the background and she already knows it's Dina, she expected that Dina was pregnant far before she told her and Ellie, but she didn't want to mention it. 

"Dina's in bad shape, she worries about Ellie, this fool went to that damned hospital. Alone." Sydney quickly got up from the couch she crashed on. "I would go but..." He was still in some pain after some wolves got him in the city, she didn't want him to go, there's only one person that she feels good to work with and that person is in Jackson. 

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I'll get ready, if you could, find some map and find out which hospital it is." Sydney coughs slightly. "Fucking Ellie. Was she always this hasty?" She quickly reaches over to her backpack and looks at her supplies while Jesse looks after some map, the only one they found earlier is in Ellie's hands. 

Jesse chuckles. "You don't know the half of it." During Ellie's, Dina's, and Sydney's travel to Seattle the ashen haired woman noticed that Ellie avoided death by pure luck a couple of times. "Shit, this will be enough?" He shows the woman a destroyed, rotten piece of paper that was a map, but she can make out something from it. 

"Yeah. Go to Dina, she has to know where that hospital is." She picks up the backpack and gets up from the couch, throws the bag on her back. Her rifle secured on her back also. Soon Jesse's back with the map with a small circle marked on it, where the hospital is. "Damn..." She's looking at the map when Jesse gives it to her. "When Ellie went?" 

"Around two hours ago?" 

"And you tell me now?!" She asks in a raised voice, she could have easily caught up to Ellie, but now it'll be a challenge if it's even possible at this point. "Oh, it'll be fucking fun." She mutters out as she quickly finds two shortest ways to the hospital from the theatre. "For fuck's sake..." She whines out, she is already sure that she will for sure meet W.L.F, infected, or maybe those scars she read in some of the notes they found in the downtown. 

"What?" 

"I might not catch up to her thus I might be too late. And those ways will for sure have some patrols or checkpoints, so yeah... But fuck it, what don't you do for friends." She remarks sarcastically. "Come with me, someone needs to close those doors." 

She's outside the theatre, the rain is slightly pouring so she puts on her hood. "Don't get yourself killed." He tells her and she punches playfully his shoulder. 

"I'd be worried about yourself, you're staying with worried Dina." She jokes and he slightly laughs before Sydney runs off in her direction, already hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. 

And of course that the worst fucking happened, she met at least two patrols that she managed to avoid, but soon enough she saw as an arrow hits the pavement in front of her, then she hears whistles, a lot of them. Two men on the horses charge at her, she shoots them with her rifle before ducking behind a car. "Shit." She whispers as bullets, arrows hit the car. Sydney pulls out a pipe bomb she made yesterday and waits a couple of seconds before liting the fuse. Fuse is burning as she looks behind the car and sees three people charging at her with machetes. She throws the bomb at them about three seconds before it blew, the explosion killing the three. She uses a bit of distraction and kills a man in the building with a sniper rifle. 

Last thing she hears is a bullet casing fall before she sees no more people. She breathes out in relief and puts the rifle back in its place. Then she hears a cry behind her and a woman charging at her with a knife. She barely dodges the stab before she takes out her own knife in the hand. "Die wolf!" Woman screams, Sydney notices the scars on her face and they couldn't be done by accident, so those people must be scars. Woman takes another swing at Sydney, managing to cut her shoulder shallowly. Ashen haired woman winces in pain before she tried to stab the woman in her stomach, scar catches Sydney's hand before trying to do the same thing and Sydney manages to catch a woman's arm just in time. 

They wrestled for a while before Sydney headbutted the woman making her stumble backward, and Sydney now has an opening she uses. She jumps to the woman, stabbing her in the stomach three times and grabbing her neck. She notices that scar tries to use her last breaths trying once again to stab Sydney, but she's slower, and Sydney stabs her in the neck twists the blade with a dead look in her eyes. "Fuck..." She breathes out, winded. Her small break is cut short when she hears other whistlings, and she decides to book it, no way she can fight them off again. 

She runs in front of herself not caring if she's going the right way, she's close enough to see the hospital easily if she gets high enough. Quickly getting to a building she blocks the entrance before resting against the wall, trying to catch herself a small break before wincing in pain at the cut on her shoulder. How much she wishes that Remee was here, the only person she'd completely trust in a fight, the only person she managed to fall in love with and never managed to admit it. Remee got shot because of Sydney, she met a couple of people in a lodge, but she only remembered two of their names at first, Abby, the woman that tortured a guy named Joel Miller, and Jordan, the man that shot Remee, at least she got her revenge on him. But she risked a lot trying to give Joel more time to live, she kept Mel, as she was closest to her, hostage telling the rest to get the hell out of the lodge, they took Joel with them, and now Ellie's hunting for them, she saw a small part of what happened to Joel, he's alive, at least that's what Ellie believes. 

Saving her thoughts for later she moved forwards exiting the building in the back. She looks around a small neighborhood seeing a couple of same-looking buildings before climbing a staircase up to the roof of one of the buildings. The hospital is close, really close, about half an hour of walking, and she's going for at least one by this point, she just wishes that Ellie either encountered some problems making her get later to the hospital or at least that she took longer but safer route. "Better be fucking alive Ellie." She mutters to herself before heading to the hospital. 

The hospital was a damned slaughterhouse when they spotted Sydney, she killed a couple of wolves before running upstairs. She moved to the corridor in which she heard voices, none of Ellie, so risking it she threw another and last pipe bomb inside, waiting for it to blow before rushing in the room and finishing off any W.L.F members that were left. She hears voices on the other side of the last door, familiar voices. She kicks the door in startling both Nora and Ellie that looks at Sydney for a second before Nora throws a metal tray at her face. Two women chased after Nora before they got pinned down in a hall. "Fuck. She'll get away!" Ellie screams as she clutches onto her pistol. 

"Screw it. I'll distract them for as long as I can, you go after her." Sydney tells her, Ellie looks at her with a worried look, it's basically a death wish, they outnumber them greatly. "Hey, fortune favors fools." It was a saying her mother used to say when Sydney did something stupid and got away with it. Sydney sees a smoke bomb in Ellie's slightly opened backpack and she takes it without asking. "Now!" She throws the bomb at the cluster of people and Ellie starts running after Nora while Sydney begins to open fire on her enemies. 

_Who's gonna dig theses graves?_

She manages to hit three of them but kills only one. She's scared shitless. But she keeps calm before leaning from the other side of her cover and taking a few blinds shoots, and she could hear that she hit someone, maybe even killed them. Her hectic breathing, quick heart action, it all makes aiming harder, but she's not supposed to get out alive, but to make sure Ellie gets out fine after getting what she needs from Nora. She is suddenly made to kneel down as something hits her leg, then she feels warm liquid pouring down her leg, then the sharp pain, she got shot in the thigh, and she immediately returned fire at them, maybe even hitting them, before retreating down slightly. The bullets were flowing from one side and it is bad enough. 

_Who's gonna dig theses graves?_

It got worse when W.L.F members started pouring from both sides, she knows how to handle herself, but this situation isn't possible to survive by traditional means, so she quickly crafts a couple of bombs, pours some alcohol on the bandage before applying it on her thigh. She does that all while being shot at. Sydney then proceeds to throw bombs both ways, hoping to give her time to pick out a couple of targets, maybe those bombs killing someone too. Her face is stretched in pain when she shoots, at least she's holding out, but it's a time before they overwhelm her, she needs to save those bombs to make herself a chance to exit. A familiar click of an empty magazine appears when she leans out again, her enemies using it, and shooting her straight in the stomach. 

_Somebody help me dig these graves, I can't do it all my own_

Why she decided to go here? To get killed over some revenge she finally fulfilled? Because she knew how it is to see people close to you get tortured and felt sorry for Ellie? Or maybe she's really a fool. The only thing she knows is that she has to go, and has to go now. Taking a couple breathes in she throws one bomb after another in one direction in hopes of killing someone and being able to run using this side. Not seeing much of other choices she runs down the corridor hearing the bullets whistle around her head, break glass, wood. She sees one man that survived but is fatally wounded and she shoots him while running, killing him. The further down the corridor she was the more she believes that she may get out alright from there, but then the door throws her off balance, a huge man with an axe appears from behind him and without thinking Sydney shoots him three times in the chest and once in the head. She tries to get up, but she can't, she doesn't has the strength. Her lightly blurry vision allows her to shoot at three men racing after her through the corridor and she shoots them and kills them all. 

_Who's gonna dig theses graves?_

She tries to get up, she can't do it. No strength to do it. She's weak, always were, always managing to cheek her way out of a confrontation, she always told herself it was to protect herself and Remee, but she was just a coward. And now when she tries to protect someone close to her she bleeds out slowly, trying to stay awake, but at least it's quiet now, no one around, everyone around dead, and she'll be sone too. Sydney closes her eyes, trying to rest, and all she sees is flashes of Remee in their best days when they were just happy, lived without having to dodge bullets, infected, other assholes just to get to Jackson. In fact it was Remee's dream to live in a true community and Sydney agreed, and following that dream might kill Sydney and it might kill Remee too if it didn't already. 

_Who's gonna dig theses graves?_

She grits her teeth, takes a deep breath in, she needs to see Remee last time, she doesn't care if she dies trying to get out of this hospital, but at least she'll go down fighting, protecting her friend. 

_Somebody help me dig these graves, I can't do it all my own_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song referenced is: Graves by Whiskey Shivers


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit more insight into Sydney's background, there will be more of it as when I finally start writing about her (sometime after finishing 'Just Come Back').

Ashen-haired woman is sitting close to the campfire, it's cold in Canada, maybe not as cold like in winter but she usually has a more permanent shelter by then, at least a sort that she won't get too cold in. She's leaving on her own since she was sixteen, so over good year by now, and she's doing fine by herself, sure a close call here and there, but in the end, she always survives is it by running away or fighting. But it usually is running. It's not like she has much of a chance to win against multiple enemies when she's alone. Then again her encounters with both infected and live people would be cut by half if she'd stay in Alaska. 

Sydney wishes things ended up differently, but there was no way they could, at least she got her revenge, though she's not sure if she regrets it or not. But one thing she's sure of is that this day will haunt her for some time. 

She warms up her hands, hunting was her thing but the waiting for prey was the more annoying part for her, but at least she has what to eat for the next couple of days, so that's one thing she doesn't have to worry about. What she has to worry about is changing her location again since she's running low on ammo and the closest town in which there might be some ammo is a little bit far away. "Shit!" Sydney hears a distant yell, her hands reach over to her rifle and aims in the direction. She isn't sure who's running in the distance, but she can see one figure running and a couple more chasing after it, but she can't quite figure out if it's infected or people. 

Normally she'd ignore it, stay quiet, maybe hide for some time, but people are hard to come by in these parts, and Sydney has no wish for troubles with some raiders that will take fancy to her camp and try to rob it. So she carefully runs up to a couple of figures, trying to be slightly faster than them and barely catching up. Taking a closer look she sees that it's some girl running away from the infected, she seems about her age, maybe slightly younger, and she feels slight pity for the girl, so she whistles, loudly, so both the girl and infected hear her. Her hand reaches over to the knife while she puts away her rifle. 

The first infected that charges at her, trying to grab her, is easily avoided by Sydney and she charges to the one right behind stabbing it in the eye. She never stops moving as she avoids infected blows, barely, but still. The mysterious girl was hiding behind a tree, panting, sweating, tired. Ashen-haired woman makes quick work of infected, her hands covered in red liquid, her face in sweat and her breathing is heavy, she's tired, but probably not as much as the other woman is. 

Sydney looks around and quickly locates the woman and she slowly approaches her, hiding back her knife. "You're alright?" The woman asks seeing how heavy Sydney is breathing and she just waves it off. 

"I should be the one asking." Sydney replies, avoiding the question, they did manage to land a hit or two, but nothing more serious than bruises will be the aftermath. "How about we go rest? I can see you're tired too." Sydney offers and the other woman just shyly nods before following a slightly taller girl. 

"Thanks for saving my ass." Her voice is quiet, slightly musical, her hair is black and short that go to the right of her head, them being no longer than woman's hair no much longer than where her jaw is. 

"Oh don't thank me." She smiles in direction of the woman. "I really didn't want to deal with any infected that could've surprised me." Sydney admits and the woman nods. "I'm Sydney, by the way." 

"Remee." Then silence, a content one, Sydney trying not to think about anything while Remee does her best to warm herself up. "You're here alone?" That question does make her a little suspicious. 

"Yeah... I've been alone for over a year." She almost didn't talk at all for all this time and it proves to be difficult when she has to talk with someone and even worse when her throat slightly aches. 

Remee sends her a sad smile, a pitiful one. "Sounds lonely." It sure is. 

"Perhaps..." She breathes out, they sit on one bigger wooden box that Sydney found and managed to drag to her camp. "What the hell are you doing here alone? The area isn't safe." It is when you know how to move around. 

"Ah. Honestly... I've run away from my community, they've started to change into monsters, killing, robbing, those sort of things." This can't be all, no one in their right mind would go here. "I met a caravan in a town, at least I think that's what it was. They told me about another community running for years now, somewhere in Jackson county I believe." That's quite some way, there are probably some closer communities. 

"This is quite some way you've got to travel, especially on foot." Remee chuckles at those words. 

"I honestly believed I may be able to get a car, or horse at least. But no luck." She's way too trusting, but it may as well be the fact that Sydney just saved her life and she wants to be honest. "Are you maybe going that way? You know how to handle yourself, and I could help." Now that's a bold request, sure she has to move again because of a lack of supplies in the area, but agreeing to travel with someone is stupid and tempting at the same time. Stupid because she barely knows the girl, and tempting because she wouldn't mind some company. "It's stupid anyway." Remee admits, shaking her head in defeat. 

Sydney shrugs, she knows that the woman won't survive the travel to Wyoming, hunters, fanatics, cults, infected, all lurking around the whole world just waiting for easy prey. And moving to some areas in which more people lived might result in her actually managing to find some decent amounts of supplies and not scraps she's been finding these past few months. "You can go with me. But few rules, when I say we fight, we fight, when I say we run, we run." Remee nods with some sort of hope in her eyes. "And our main goal, at least for now, won't be Wyoming, we need some sort of transport or we'll freeze trying to get out of here." Winter is coming and she sure as hell doesn't want to be caught without a shelter while traveling. 

Remee smiles widely, generously, before nodding yet again. "Thank you." Sydney wanted to tell her not to thank her, no point in that, she doubts that she'll stay in that community either way, probably just leave her not far from there, and go on her own way. 

What makes her doubt that is when she glances at Remee and the woman sends her another of those genuine smiles and Sydney's heart skip a beat, and she already knows it's worse when there are butterflies in her stomach, distant, barely feelable, but they're there. It will be a longer trip than anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If some people are interested there's a story on my Wattpad, so I thought I may share the link here: https://my.w.tt/us5M0m4Bbbb  
> And if for some stupid reason it won't work (I couldn't turn on the link didn't matter if I was logged in or not) there's the user name: 1_dont-care


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